


The Next Dimension Over

by Yusagi



Category: Dragon Ball, Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Character Swap, Canon - Manga, Canon Era, Canon-Typical Violence, Crossover, F/M, For Want of a Nail, Gen, Haruno Sakura-centric, POV Haruno Sakura
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-16
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2018-04-15 00:56:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 86
Words: 181,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4586937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yusagi/pseuds/Yusagi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Goku and Krillin are sent to find Roshi a 'Pichi Pichi girl', a woman falling through the sky interferes with the destiny that had previously been laid out for them. When Sakura's strength wavers at a critical moment, she falls through dimensions and the destiny she worked so hard for vanishes into dreams. AU: If Goku and Krillin brought Sakura Haruno home instead of Lunch. Long-term.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I thought..."Here's a thought! What about a Naruto/Dragonball crossover? That's like, never been done before!"
> 
> But anyway, I'm taking this from the beginning of Dragonball vs the end of Naruto for multiple reasons. The ages of Sakura and the rest of the Z fighters synch up here, their relative power levels are much closer (Sakura will actually surpass their abilities for a while, in fact), and by setting it where I have, it will provide an opening for her to fit into the story. There simply isn't room to do much organically with the cast once aliens start popping up in the story.
> 
> And really, in Dragonball it wouldn't have been a surprise at all if the girl they found fell out of thin air onto them instead of sneezing her way into catching their attention. I have no promises on the pacing: I'm not in any huge hurry to rush into Z, but I'm not going to strictly force her to walk through the stages of canon. The fic is a study as much as anything else, into what would happen should Sakura have ended up in Goku's party instead of Lunch. The story will naturally go AU, but how far it will go will depend on Sakura's involvement, and is yet to be seen.

It couldn't be said that things moved too quickly for her to react, short of the very last moment. Under normal circumstances, she would have been able to react in time just fine. Ninjas were trained to react to critical situations in a moment.

They were trained to do very little at all with the amount of chakra exhaustion she suffered. She certainly wasn't trained to deal with Obito-now-Kaguya's bizarre method of transportation or their twisting portals while handling her excessive chakra depletion. She didn't even truly slip and fall: it was a momentary lurch.

Under the circumstances, a momentary lurch was all that was necessary to dislodge her from the slight grip Sasuke still had on her arm. For a terrible moment, she thought she'd fall back into the dimension between worlds and be trapped there perhaps forever. That moment passed, and she found it was worse than that: rather than crashing to the ground, she found herself falling.

And falling.

Blue sky and silver-gold clouds spiraled by her as her body limply fell toward distant grassland below. Her mind clouded with exhaustion and weakness from the charge of chakra Obito had needed moments before, and it made it difficult to force herself to think. How could she break her fall and land without killing herself? Katsuyu was in another dimension and most likely trapped within the infinite tsukuyomi. Around her, emptiness extended in every direction, with nothing for her to reach out and grasp onto.

She felt too tired to laugh, but otherwise, she might have. If she died from the fall, then she couldn't even wait around helplessly for a rescue while Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi saved the world. What a waste of all of her effort and training.

Something collided with her midsection with enough force to knock the wind out of her and make her vision blurry with tears, and an unfamiliar voice echoed through the air. " _Power pole extend!_ "

(*)

Frankly, he didn't much like her. She'd yet to speak a word, since she'd been _unconscious_ the entire time that he'd known her, but he _had_ almost plummeted to his death because his thick headed ride left him to drop through the cloud in favor of catching her (sure, Goku went and got him too before he hit the ground, but no one enjoyed the sensation of falling to their death! He had a very strict rule about not dying before he actually got himself a girlfriend.). She was also just in the way, being sprawled across the cloud unconscious. Granted...if she didn't float on the freaky cloud thing for whatever reason (he refused to accept the idea that having perfectly normal, human thoughts meant he couldn't fly on a dumb cloud) it probably would have been much more difficult to get back home without falling to his death again.

But he still didn't like her. She was covered in blood and dirt and sweat, and he really didn't want to be near whatever it was that gave her that burn on her arm...which might actually be following her for all they knew. Why else would a girl be randomly falling through the sky (unless she went and rolled off of some other cloud in her sleep. Could they do that with just any cloud...?)

Unfortunately, Goku refused to drop her off anywhere since she was injured (or kick her back off the cloud, though he didn't see a problem with that, objectively, since she might have wanted to be falling in the first place), and they definitely didn't have room for four on the dinky little cloud. She wasn't exactly the kind of girl their esteemed master probably wanted, being so wanting up front and so haggard and...blood covered in her current state...

But he had a pretty strong guess from the attitude of the boy in front of him and the old man on the island that the hermit would put up with her as an offering. And _that_ meant training. After his recent brush with death by cloud, he didn't really feel up to trying to find anything better than 'passable' if he didn't have to.

"Hey, do you think we should get her into bed?"

He blinked, jolted out of his thoughts by the sudden question. Oh. They'd made it back. "Uh...wait, right away?"

"Well, yeah. She looks like she needs to heal up, or do you think we should make sure she's what Grandpa Roshi wants first?"

Oh. That kind of thing.

As Goku jumped from the cloud, he dropped like a rock onto a rock in the sand. Ouch. "...No, we might as well get her inside." Just in case the master got any ideas about telling them to throw her back in.

"Alright!" He hefted the girl in his arms in an awkward looking way that couldn't be comfortable for either of them. "I'll get her up into the bedroom, you go find old grandpa!"

(*)

She knew it would be a strain on her system, but she still hadn't expected it to take so much out of her so quickly. Maybe it was because she'd been running low to begin with, maybe it was the strain of adapting her chakra to fit Obito, or the extra juice she'd had to use to heal up Sasuke and Obito after their ordeals. Maybe the jutsu she supported was so foreign her body couldn't handle it.

Whatever the reason was, she didn't stay conscious long. She felt an impact from the wrong direction, heard an echoing shout, and then darkness consumed her. As her consciousness threaded back, so did her reasoning. The Power Pole was a tool used only by the third hokage's personal summon. She'd heard that from the Fifth when she was training. There was no way that he could have appeared in a parallel dimension without someone summoning him (if he was even free of the genjutsu), and that meant...it had to be the Third's work. Did that mean that the Edo Tensei soldiers were unaffected by the worldwide genjutsu after all?

If...she were in the same dimension as the Edo Tensei soldiers...then that meant that she had fallen into the original dimension when she'd slipped through the cracks. And if she wasn't in a dream world (which she couldn't be, if she remembered not being in it, right?) then...the genjutsu had to have been broken. More than that...she wasn't lying on the hard ground. It was...something soft?

A bed. She'd been moved to a bed. So...that meant...had she...slept through the rest of the fight?

Even if the jutsu was broken by Kaguya leaving the dimension or being defeated...had Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi returned? How long had she been asleep? How hurt were they? How was everyone else?

 _Just what had she missed_?

She jolted upward in a sudden panic, shaking off her remaining lethargy with fearful suddenness. A frail looking figure tumbled out of her vision with an unhappy shout...but she barely registered the sound or the movement at all. " _Sasuke!_ Naruto...!" Slowly, she began to register her surroundings, as heaving breaths slowed down. "I...?"

The small room wasn't even slightly familiar. Two small children stood a short distance away from her, eyes wide with surprise and curiosity. Quickly, she turned to look out the window to gather her bearings... "Sea...?"

"Are you...uh..." A scratchy voice spoke from where the children were, and she turned back toward them. "Are you okay, lady?"

"Where'd you come from, anyway?" The boy with hair spoke, scratching the back of his head and screwing his face up into a confused expression. "Did you faint and fall off of a cloud or something?"

... _They_ didn't know where she'd come from? But-

She shook her head quickly, and looked down at herself: still the same tattered, dirty uniform. Her arm had been bandaged, but it hurt too much to have had medical jutsu applied. The man looking dazed on the floor was definitely _not_ the honorable Third.

Then...

"Where... _am I_?"

"Oh, I know that one!" The dark haired one spoke up quickly, grinning. "You're in Kame house! It's where the old turtle hermit lives."

"...And us, now." The bald young one squinted over at the other with something like suspicion. "Don't forget that."

"Huh?" He blinked, and then shook his head. "Well, yeah! Now it's all of us, right? She's the kind of one you wanted, right, Grandpa?"

 _Wanted_?

The old man, who had been righting himself then, dusted himself off and gave a frantic shushing gesture toward the two kids, and then turned to look at her, dark glasses glinting in the sunlight that streamed through the window next to her. "What...eh...he _meant_ is...you need a place to heal up and stay, don't you? At least until we can figure out how you ended up falling through the sky!" He laughed, and nodded to himself. "Unless you have somewhere else you'd rather be?"

She set her jaw. She didn't have the _time_ to be dealing with...whatever it was that these three were actually planning. What she needed were answers. Could this be another dimension of Kaguya's? A place inhabited by _people_? What kind of people were living in a dimension that Kaguya apparently created? Prisoners? Or...something worse?

They didn't look dangerous, but when it came to tricks from someone as powerful and unimaginable as Kaguya, she couldn't let her guard down. Her fist clenched at her side. "How...how are you connected to Kaguya?"

The three were silent for a moment or two longer than she wanted to wait, before the old man spoke. "...Kaguya? Just what is that? Is that where you just came from?"

She scanned the room, but the others didn't seem to show any sign of knowing what she meant, either. Just...

_How?_

_No._ No. That wasn't important, and she wouldn't allow herself to be distracted. If this wasn't home, then it meant she was still in the grip of Kaguya's dimensions...and the battle might not have been decided. She glanced out the window again, but although it was daylight, that...didn't help at all in determining how much time passed.

"How long has it been since you...found me?"

"Oh...well...let's see..." The old man hemmed and hawed for a moment before the bald one spoke up.

"It's been about an hour."

"An _hour_?!" She ignored whatever outburst the old man gave toward the child, and immediately shoved herself out of bed, running for the door and...wherever. She'd figure that out once she got outside and found the place she fell through. "I have to get back!"

" _Wait_!"


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If it wasn't for the way Goku almost let him die, and the way he almost took his student position, and the way that Goku couldn't even find a good girl on his own...he'd dislike her even more than Goku. That really just wasn't fair. Why couldn't the first person they met be sweet and innocent and...busty?

He'd had more time to think about it now, and he was sure. He _really_ didn't like this girl. She was weird and annoying, and while she didn't do anything to get him almost killed this time, he still had to go running down a flight of stairs after her.

Maybe he didn't _need_ to, but if she actually ran away, they'd have to go out looking for another girl. And she would have to steal his boat, which meant he'd be forced to ride the killer cloud again. He might not survive the next girl.

Once they actually got outside the building, though...it turned out she'd simply stopped a few feet from the building, and when they arrived was simply staring up into the sky. He found it kind of disconcerting...but then he probably shouldn't have been too upset, since it meant his boat (and escape route) was still within his grasp.

Goku was the first one to actually speak. "...Are you looking for the cloud you came from? We're a big distance from where you fell, but maybe if you called it...!"

She turned her gaze toward them, expression serious and determined. "How far away?"

Wait. Had she really fallen from a cloud? Were there _cloud people_ now? How was that even possible?

"Uh...I dunno. You were past that water and the mountains on the other side. But I don't think it would stay still..."

She walked up to the edge of the water, and for a moment he thought she might just jump in and try to swim across. Everything about her had been weird enough that he couldn't say he would have been surprised if she did try to do that. But he definitely also wouldn't try to save her if she then started to drown. It would be her own fault trying to swim when there was a perfectly good boat she could steal sitting right beside her.

She didn't, though. She just walked up there and stopped. She muttered something he didn't quite catch, but one of the words almost sounded like 'weak'. A moment later, though, she spoke louder. "I really am stuck."

"Ahh, 'stuck' isn't the right way to look at it at all!" The old man appeared at his side. It couldn't have taken someone of his renown that long to go down a simple flight of steps, so it must have been that he had been sitting back and observing the situation for a while before he actually spoke. Now the old hermit made his way across the sand toward the strange woman, sun gleaming off of his dark glasses. "It's a private tropical island, with _excellent_ company. If you'll stay as my guest for a while, then you could consider it a vacation instead!"

She frowned and shook her head. "I don't have time for a vacation."

_Geez._

If it wasn't for the way Goku almost let him die, and the way he almost took his student position, and the way that Goku couldn't even find a good girl on his own...he'd dislike her even more than Goku. That really just wasn't fair. Why couldn't the first person they met be sweet and innocent and...busty?

"Well it doesn't matter! You're stuck here either way!"

A sudden thunk of wood to the top of his head shot brilliant stars through his vision. " _Augh!_ " Instinctively, he ducked down and cradled his wounded head.

"You're not _trapped_ here! You're...a guest! In fact, you'll be my third student!"

_That sly old devil-_

"But you said you weren't taking any more students!" Goku frowned and looked between the woman and the master, apparently completely unaware of the motivation behind the bogus offer. The turtle hermit harrumphed, and waved his accusation off.

"That's...that's right! You should think of yourself as blessed for such an opportunity to be trained by the _great_ Turtle Hermit!" He didn't really want her to stay, but it was still less trouble just to back up the hermit master than go out looking for another. "He's the strongest person in the world, you know!"

Up until that point, the woman had been...apparently ignoring them, staring off across the sea and into the sky. When he said that, though, her green eyes turned toward them finally, and she frowned. "Strongest?"

(*)

She still didn't understand. This was the furthest thing from her best dream come true, and yet...she could have believed that more readily than the idea that Kaguya somehow held a pocket dimension full of children that would...do almost nothing toward furthering her goals. Honestly, if she hadn't had the day she'd gone through so far, she wasn't sure what she'd think.

The fact was, though...wherever she had ended up, unless this was the most underwhelming dream world she'd ever conceived of, she couldn't rely on being rescued by anyone. Kakashi and Naruto didn't possess the ability to travel dimensions on their own, Obito...wouldn't last the battle no matter what happened, she was sure. She couldn't understand quite what Naruto had done to sustain his body beyond his separation from the beast, but she could see it was fading quickly.

And...Sasuke...

She wasn't a little girl any longer. She knew better than to think Sasuke would come looking to rescue her, even if he somehow had the ability to. She had to rescue herself. Without a Mangekyou Sharingan (or a Rinnegan, apparently), though...it wouldn't be easy. And she needed more information.

She frowned at the three in front of her. The old man wouldn't be the first powerful person she'd met of an advanced age or fragile appearance. He would be the most fragile looking of them all, though. Even Lady Chiyo looked healthier and younger than the hunched over and thin figure in front of her. But if he was the strongest person wherever...this was...then maybe her best chances of finding a way back was with the strange people she woke up with after all.

The man straightened slightly, and sunlight gleamed off of his glasses. "Well...I suppose I do have a reputation." He chuckled to himself. "But as a resident of Kame house, training comes free of charge!"

She shook her head, and waved his offer away. "I don't have time for that."

"Well, you wouldn't take the full course like these two, of course!" He linked his arms behind his back as he spoke. "I wouldn't expect a lady like you to keep up with something so severe. But well supervised exercise would do you well in recovering from your injuries!" He paused a moment, and then nodded to himself. "And it would do wonders for your good looks, as well."

At some point, her teeth grit without her even realizing it. Whatever this world or place was, she had no idea, but she already didn't like it. "' _A lady like me_ '?"

"...Eh?"

"Do you mean to say a woman can't handle your training?" She didn't know, completely, whether she were angry at the insult, or amused and too tired to laugh, considering the threat she _should_ have been helping to face right then.

Primarily it was anger, though.

"Ho?" The old man huffed, thoughtful. "Do you think you can handle my training?"

...She didn't have time for any kind of training (neither did she really want to learn anything from someone with such a narrow mind), but his presumptuousness aggravated her, and she had been running on very little sleep for...an alarming amount of time. "You don't have anything to teach me."

His expression was inscrutable behind his glasses. Of the two boys, the one with hair looked excited, while the bald one looked offended. For a moment or two, he simply watched her. Eventually, he harrumphed. "Very well then. If that's the case, I retract my offer."

She turned away from him after that, as the two began to speak to him. Admittedly, this was...probably still the best place for her to be if she wanted to find a way home (and she did). That didn't mean she had to put up with wastes of her time, though.

The air stirred around her, and she spun on her heel instinctively, drawing one of the only kunai left on her person. Metal flashed in the midday sunlight, and she caught a downward swing of his innocuous looking cane with the weapon.

_Was this a trick after all_?

She'd barely recovered a trickle of chakra with however long she'd been unconscious, but it wouldn't stop her from putting up a fight against whatever trick Kaguya tried to use to keep her away from the rest of Team 7. Chakra summoned to her fist without thought and she swung an uppercut at the falling figure of the old man with an angry shout.

She wasn't sure what to expect of the old man-turned-enemy...but the fist connected with his midsection, and in short order, the force of the strike sent he and his cane spiraling off into the water somewhere to her left.

(*)

What

_What the hell did he just see?_

Because he definitely didn't just see the stranger intercept a sudden attack from the esteemed Master Roshi and then counter attack him _into the sea_. Today was not the day which he would see that. He refused.

In the distance, he heard a splash.

Awww, _damn it_.

" _Whoa_!" He wasn't actually sure if he was surprised that Goku just sounded impressed, instead of worried for their teacher (or themselves). "That was a great reaction!"

"Are _you insane?!_ " It didn't matter whether or not he named the recipient of his admonishment, because it probably applied to both of the people still on the island with him. "You can't just attack people in their own homes! The ocean is dangerous! H-He invited you here!" Honestly, whatever he'd just seen was so bizarre and sudden that he was having difficulties pinning down one single response.

Belatedly, he realized she was still in an aggressive stance, and his shout drew her attention to him in the form of an angry glare. "Are you next?"

Was...that a threat...? It sounded a little like an accusation. That didn't make sense, though, so it must have been a poorly veiled thread. From the person that just sent his prospective master into the sea rather handily.

"U-uh..."

" _Ka-_ "

She turned in the direction of the distance voice a moment before he did. He couldn't make it out very well, considering the distance, but it looked like...his master? _In the air_? "What the...?"

" _Me_ "

In the corner of his vision, he noted the pink haired girl shift in the sand. It made him a little bit nervous. Maybe. If this weirdo and his master were about to actually fight, just how destructive would it be in a little island like this one? It'd be a one-sided fight, probably...but even so, she had to be kind of strong if she sent someone that far.

And he didn't want to be collateral damage. That was on his rules of unacceptable behavior.

" _Haa-_ "

"I can't see..." Goku appeared next to him, shielding his eyes against the sun. "Is he all bulky? I don't want to be standing in the way if he's doing that again. Last time he blew up a mountain when he was supposed to put out a fire like that..."

"He _what_?"

"Aw, man...I can't tell!" The kid didn't even look worried, just...annoyed. Why was he surrounded in _weirdos_ all of a sudden? What did that have to do with learning martial arts?

" _Meee_ -"

The woman shot across the sand with alarming speed toward the distant figure (who was gradually falling down back into the ocean, from the look of it). Was she seriously planning to swim over to him? Because that couldn't be very efficient. And also the ocean was full of dangerous things! Did she even listen to him at all?

Brilliant blue light shone from where his master fell, and for a moment, it looked as if she actually ran so quickly she managed to run over the water.

Before he could decide whether she'd managed to do something like that, though, the light-which was a _beam of energy, apparently_ -overtook where she stood, and she vanished.

A moment later, so did his boat.

" _My boat_!"


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For the moment, she could only bide her time, gather information...and find a way to create a jutsu all on her own capable of crossing dimensions without an almost all-powerful dojutsu to help her. But she was Sakura Haruno, prize student of the Fifth Hokage, and Hashirama Senju himself had recognized her strength and ability. If anyone could find a way out, it was her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter I struggled for a while with the pacing, but I think I've gotten past the part that was going to drag now. It should be easier from here.

"Are you gonna faint again?"

She didn't deign to look over at the boy (who she'd heard called 'Goku' at least a few times now), but she did frown. And she _didn't_ faint. She collapsed of exhaustion, both physical and chakra.

Into the sea.

The fact that someone had fished her out of the water instead of allowing her to drown decreased the likelihood that the attack was anything more than an attempt to judge her skills. If they were trying to kill her, she'd at least have woken up somewhere else where the ocean carried her, if she managed not to drown.

But what was that jutsu he used? Just before everything went black and she collapsed, it looked something like Naruto's Rasen-shiruken. Exactly what _was_ it, and where had she found herself, that people were capable of using something like that?

Escape was still her number one priority, but now she needed more answers than before. And one unfortunate thing was certain: if she needed to fight her way out, she needed more recovery time than she'd had. Next time, she had her doubts over whether she'd wake up in the same bed again.

Finally, she turned her attention to the small child who had been sitting at her bedside when she woke. His clothes still looked damp, which meant that he was probably the one who got her out of the ocean. "I won't _faint_. But...I need food." And rest. But if she could get him to leave the room, she could heal her arm without revealing that she held medical abilities. Until she was truly certain of the nature of her...stay...she needed to be judicial about showing her abilities.

Not only that, but three hours all told of sleep and no food in fourty-eight hours didn't leave much room for building up fresh chakra. It had been thanks to things like Naruto imparting chakra to her that allowed her to continue building up enough chakra while she fought and healed people to finish her seal. Since then...three years of chakra had been burning up at an unpleasant rate.

In the end, healing her arm might show how little stamina she had in reserve even more than the obvious...need for sleep that she occasionally presented.

His expression brightened once he processed her words. "Oh! I'm hungry too! It's almost dinner time, I'll bring you back food!"

She wasn't really sure why he'd stayed by her bedside at all in the first place, but it seemed it wasn't an assignment he couldn't ignore, because the moment he finished speaking, he stood up and ran out of the room. It reminded her a little bit of Naruto. But then, she was tired and probably a little bit delusional.

Once she was alone in the room, she carefully checked under her bandages. It seemed that some sort of medicine had been applied, and considering the fact that they were dry, it must have been reapplied after she fell into the ocean. No matter what else, it was clear that these people wanted her alive. And not for such a short time that they wouldn't be concerned about infections.

Medics were always the worst patients, however. She wasn't about to rely on anyone else to ensure her arm healed (particularly as it would undoubtedly scar if it healed in any natural form). It was too much risk to try to open her seal and heal herself naturally: though it would undo most of the exhaustion she suffered now, it might complicate matters if she were being observed, or if someone returned in the time it took to regenerate. Instead, she tapped into what remained of her chakra reserves, and washed over the wound with healing chakra manually.

Unsurprisingly, once the wounds were healed and faded, the room spun and darkened around her once again.

...So maybe she _would_ faint again after all.

Or at least pass out in a dignified manner.

(*)

When he imagined bringing back a girl to prove himself worthy of training, he had a few assumptions and a lot of hope about what that would be like. Not one of them had been met so far. She didn't cook, she hadn't cleaned, she hadn't walked around half awake through the house in underwear or had a shower people could accidentally walk in on.

For most of three days, all the woman did was _sleep_. He'd be angry that she also ate their food instead of making more food, like she was directly making fun of his expectations, but it was difficult to find anyone's eating habits problematic once he saw Goku go at it.

Master Roshi still refused to start their training until she agreed to stay in any form that wasn't just sleeping in their bed and eating their food. So. Considering the delay in training that he'd dedicated so much time and effort toward finally finding and earning, right now he disliked her more than Goku. But only barely, considering Goku's inhuman appetite resulted in stealing _his_ food last night.

And what kind of a name was 'Sakura', anyway? Who named someone after a tree?

At least something had changed today, though he wasn't completely sure that it was for the better just yet. She'd gotten out of bed. And not in the 'run outside and try to drown in the ocean' kind of way she did that first day. Which explained why she was standing in the living room watching all of them. Frankly, the white bandage and pink hair just looked odd next to her jet-black uniform. He was tempted to add it as a point against her out of spite, but there wasn't really a need.

"Ah...so you're finally up and about?" Master Roshi looked up from where he sat, voice a touch more serious than usual. "Now that you've freely sponged off of our generosity, do you plan to leave?"

She frowned after a moment, and shook her head. "The jutsu you used. I'll stay until you teach me it."

Hadn't he heard her talking to Goku about needing to leave as quickly as possible? He frowned up at her, suspicious. Obviously she was plotting something, though he wasn't actually sure what it was just yet. Surely Master Roshi would never fall for such a transparent-

"Very well!" The old man straightened in his seat, lifting his head solemnly. "But to learn such a difficult and deadly technique, you must first prove yourself _worthy_ of such knowledge."

Goku, showing the tact he'd come to expect of the boy, spoke up suddenly. "Is it really difficult? I thought it was just putting your hands together and-"

The old master quickly smacked Goku over the head. " _Quiet_ , boy!"

"What do you expect me to do to 'prove myself worthy'?" She sounded so unimpressed that he was tempted to say something about her tone (even if he wasn't always the most respectful himself...) but...he kind of wanted to know what it took to learn that impressive move from earlier, too.

Master Roshi harrumphed. "Complete my training. Do so, and I will impart my secrets unto you."

"Hey, are we ever gonna _start_ that training?" Goku spoke before he could actually say the same thing he'd been thinking. Which was good, because it meant whatever ire it inspired would be directed in Goku's direction instead.

"We'll start today!"

He blinked in surprise, finally speaking up. "Really?"

The old man smiled in a way that made him a little suspicious of his intentions. "But first...if you're going to train with us properly, you should be dressed in something appropriate, rather than those dirty rags you've been wearing for days."

She glanced down at herself with a dull sort of expression that implied she hadn't even realized she'd been wearing the same (impressively dirty and damaged) thing for days. "...If you have a change of clothes."

The man puffed out his chest in pride. "Lucky for you...I have uniforms left from when I took on students previously! Wait here and I'll bring them."

Uniforms?

Why hadn't he heard about uniforms before?

(*)

Three days.

By now, the battle was decided, and the world had either ended for good or Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi had come home and found a way to undo the jutsu. As much as it frustrated her, as much as it made her want to scream and break her way out of the dimension through sheer effort and anger...there was nothing she could do.

For the moment, she could only bide her time, gather information...and find a way to create a jutsu all on her own capable of crossing dimensions without an almost all-powerful dojutsu to help her. But she was Sakura Haruno, prize student of the Fifth Hokage, and Hashirama Senju himself had recognized her strength and ability. If anyone could find a way out, it was her.

At least...it's what she told herself. It kept away the feeling of helpless madness that otherwise threatened to take her over completely and take away any chance she _might_ have actually had of getting back home.

And in the meantime...she'd figure out exactly what jutsu it was that she saw before collapsing that first day.

The old man (who for some reason wore a turtle shell on his back even while inside) reappeared from wherever he'd gone to retrieve clothing, carrying four small boxes. With great seriousness, he juggled the boxes in his arms and grabbed the top one from the pile, holding it out for her. "We'll change immediately and get down to business. There's no reason to waste any more time!"

She doubted that she'd feel any less like she was wasting time even when doing whatever training he had in store, but she knew better than to stand around and refuse to do anything instead.

Out of curiosity, she lifted the lid of the box slightly just to see what sort of uniform she'd be expected to wear (that he had apparently no doubt she would fit).

The box clattered to the floor a moment later.

 _He was one of those sorts_.

Her fingers curled into fists, and she glared down at him from where she stood. "What. _The hell_. Is _this_?"

The two boys, who had been slower to open their boxes, froze and looked up at her with varying levels of surprise, but the old man himself gave a sheepish laugh. "Well...I know it's a bit unconventional looking, but it allows for perfect freedom of movement! It's the trademark Kamesennin style uniform!"

" _Really_?" Her teeth grit, and it took supreme effort to extend her hand palm up, instead of closed into a fist. "Then let me see all of yours."

"Well, of course we can-"

"No." She took a step forward, and the bald child took a step back. The other boy had a hesitant expression. The old one seemed to be confident, behind his dark glasses. It didn't deter her, now that she'd had days to recover. "I'll believe they aren't an illusion only if I inspect them myself."

He appeared thoughtful for a few moments, before he collected and then held out the remaining boxes to her.

...

As with most perverts, he was apparently also shameless. Her lips twitched with disgust at the image that arose in her mind when she considered him wearing the ridiculous underwear as he must have been planning to do in an attempt to fool her.

She felt a certain amount of serenity with that realization, as she bent down to pick up her own discarded uniform.

"...I see."

The old man, who had been silently watching her up to that point gave a relieved laugh. "See? It's the uniform I _always_ use to train in! It breathes, it moves, and it's stylish!"

She tore the four boxes, and their contents, in half.

 _Finally_ , the old man looked appropriately nervous.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was his fate, wasn't it?
> 
> He was surrounded by idiots with freakish abilities.

He couldn't immediately think of a time he felt more in peril of death than the few moments after she had _ripped the clothes and boxes in half_. In one quick movement. He could _feel_ the way that her battle aura sparked. It was the second time she'd done something bizarre and terrifying, counting the time she knocked his recent master off into the sea with one hit.

He didn't feel too bad about being frightened under the circumstances, though, because even his master immediately cowed once she started in with her angry threats. It was extra jarring that she'd been mostly quiet while she was just lying in bed eating and sleeping.

Really. Somewhere out there, if they'd just gone looking a little further and let this girl fall like she was doing before they came by...they could have found a sweet and innocent hot girl. She'd be cute, she'd cook dinner, she'd go along with whatever his perverted old master came up with so they could start training already, and she wouldn't be scary at all.

If his master would stop finding ways to delay training them, anyway.

He frowned as the old man returned the house to a capsule. To the left of him, he heard Sakura gasp in shock. As if she'd never seen a capsule before.

"It's weird, huh?" Goku said, in a stage whisper. "I tried to crack one open before to see if it really made everything tiny inside it, but it just exploded."

"How...does it work...?"

This was his fate, wasn't it?

He was surrounded by idiots with freakish abilities. Excluding his master, of course. Though...the old man _did_ kind of qualify for that. But he'd never admit such a rude sentiment out loud! (It'd probably get him kicked off the island) Seriously, how did anyone find capsules new or weird? What else would people transport things with?

"I have a more important question." He crossed his arms and leveled an unhappy frown on his master. "How are we gonna _get_ to the other island? You blew up my boat..."

"Don't be stupid." Master Roshi fished out another capsule from his shorts. "I have my own boat, and it will fit all of us."

For a moment, it looked as if Sakura were about to say something, but then she simply placed her hands on her hips and frowned.

With a flick of his thumb, the old master sent the capsule spinning off into the sea and unlocked it at the same time. Just as the device hit the surface of the water, it unraveled and in a puff of white smoke, a...kind of impressive looking hovercraft appeared.

The girl did speak then, though it was with a tone of bewilderment, rather than the annoyance he expected out of her. "What...the hell is that?"

(*)

Goku's explanation of whatever it was that made the house vanish wasn't exactly satisfactory, but she didn't expect much out of him. Naruto wouldn't have been able to give complicated explanations for things at his age, either. Naruto...probably _still_ couldn't give them, actually. Even now, he was still...

She shook her head slightly to dispel those thoughts. She couldn't get sad and homesick. She _was_ going to get home. She couldn't do that if she spent all of her time being sad that she wasn't there already. She needed to focus. Perhaps the...what did she hear Goku call them? Capsules? If they were moving things through dimensions somehow, then they might be necessary for finding her way back to where she belonged. Which meant she needed to find someone who actually understood them.

The trouble was...Neither of the two children or the old pervert in her company seemed to suit that description.

That, and apparently it wasn't the only strange thing in the world to investigate. The so called 'boat' that appeared out of nothing looked...almost nothing like a boat at all. _Why_?

"What do you mean 'what is it'?" The bald one frowned up at her in annoyance. "Don't tell me you've somehow never seen a _boat_ before."

"I've seen a _boat!_ " That didn't actually seem to be a boat, other than that it clearly floated. What was the thing at the back of it even _for_? It didn't look shaped in any way to avoid or solve capsizing, and it had too many holes to be an unconventional sail. It didn't even look like an engine like some of Lightning's boats had looked when she'd seen them.

"It's a boat." The old man glanced over his shoulder at her. "Which we will need to ride to get to the larger island we'll be training on."

Upon hearing this, Goku immediately sprinted forward and hopped into the 'boat' with a shout. "Alright! I'm ready to start the training right now!"

She wasn't exactly _suspicious_ of the boat. Primarily, she was just confused by it. However...she did suspect she'd get little better answers than these even if she demanded them. On a larger island, at least, there was a chance of civilization and therefore sources of knowledge better than two children and an old perverted recluse.

She gave a small shake of her head, and moved over to sit in the available seat next to Goku. It stood to reason that the old man would be manning the ship, and in such a case, she didn't feel like sitting next to him. She might have to drown him if she did that, and then she wouldn't learn his technique.

The ride, as it turned out, didn't take very long at all. If she'd wanted to (and gone in the right direction) it probably wouldn't have been too much trouble just to run there. Of course, if she'd done it the first day there was a better than average chance she'd have depleted her reserves and drowned herself halfway through.

The island was considerably larger than the other...but then, Wave would have been considerably large compared to the island she'd been confined to since her arrival in this dimension. From the look of it, though, there were paths and possibly even roads worn into the island. That meant there was a definite possibility of a population of some sort on it. Which meant other, better, sources of information.

The first of them to leave the boat once it floated up to shore (and the large fan on the back of it ceased to spin - she still wasn't sure what purpose it served, other than somehow causing it to move quickly, as if it were some kind advanced sail) was Goku, who leap-frogged over the front seat and the bald one (what was his name...?) to the ground.

"Ahh! My legs were starting to get cramped sitting in there so long!"

Said bald one sighed. "...You were crawling all over the back of the boat anyway."

" _Nimbus_!" Goku shouted as if he hadn't even heard the comment. "You can come out now!"

She blinked, as she climbed out of the boat. Not more than a few moments after his shout, a brilliant, golden cloud descended from the sky and hovered next to him like an obedient dog. He patted it appreciatively, and then clambered onto it much like a slightly elevated chair.

What.

"Why'd you even _ride in the boat_ if you could just call the dumb cloud anyway?" The other child gave an annoyed huff as he made his way to the shore, frowning up at the cloud.

Goku frowned, and scratched at his cheek. "Well...uh...I didn't think of it."

Before more could be said, the old man dispelled the boat and spoke up. "Enough chattering about that, now. We still have a trek ahead of us to get to where we'll be staying!"

It didn't really matter to her where he re-created his house, so she simply followed after Goku, watching the cloud with some curiosity. She might have been inclined to believe it was some sort of summon creature the likes of which she'd never seen before...but he'd made no attempt to summon it. At his age, even if he knew the Kuchiyose jutsu, he couldn't possibly provide a constant flow of chakra long enough to have kept it present so long that she never saw him summon it today.

"What is it?" She didn't really mean to speak, the question in her mind finally became loud enough that it simply came out.

"Huh?" Goku looked back at her, confused. "What is...what?"

She squinted at him. Just how quickly did he lose track of things? Naruto could be absent minded, but even he would have known what she was talking about under the circumstances. "What you're floating on."

"Oh! This...is Nimbus!" He looked down and patted it like one might the flank of a prized horse. "Grandpa Roshi over there gave it to me!"

She glanced at the old man who walked ahead of them, and then back at the...cloud. Perhaps it only looked like a cloud? Kaguya was strange enough, maybe a normal denizen of a dimension she created simply _looked_ like a cloud. Strange as that was, a pet would explain the lack of a summoning jutsu involved in its presence.

"Here!" The old man tossed the house onto the ground at the top of one of the island's hills. "Now...we have plenty of time left in the day, we may as well spend some of it training before we settle down to sleep for the night."

" _Finally_..." The bald one breathed, barely audible, before he clapped his hands and bowed. "I look forward to working hard!"

"Hm-G _oku!"_ The hermit shouted up at Goku, who had floated quite a distance into the air since she'd finished speaking with him. "Training is about to begin! Get back here!"

The child perked up immediately, and jumped from the golden platform to the ground. Whatever else, clearly he had some training and skill himself, to make that kind of a jump safely. She was...a little impressed, considering his age. "Hey! There are other people here!"

"Which direction?" Much as she was interested in knowing the skill of the three people she was surrounded by, _other people_ might also have information she needed to escape. They might not...but the more she understood this strange dimension she found herself in, the better her chances of figuring out how to get away from it. And understanding Kaguya herself, if...that was necessary...

Goku pointed to the west. "Down that way, there are houses."

"Mm." The old man huffed. "There are about three hundred other people living on this island. Now...should we have a tour of the island, or will we begin the training today?"

The two boys chimed 'training!' loudly before she could speak. Frankly, though, she had little doubt she'd have the time to do both in the day anyway, so she was in no great hurry. After hearing such a fuss from her companions about it for so long, she was at least _curious_ about what his training consisted of. When it was serious, and not just an excuse to be a pervert, anyway.

"Now...before we begin...Krillin." Ah, that was the child's name. "You've had some martial arts training, haven't you?"

The child beamed. "Eight years at Oorin Temple, Master!"

"Ah, I had suspected. None of you three need training in the basics, then. Still. It's best we show each other our level of skill so that we know where we're working from!" His gaze turned to her, then. For once, she felt a challenge radiating from the old man, rather than foolishness, or perverted intent. A moment later, he turned and pointed at a distant tree. "From here to there it's three hundred feet. That's an even distance to measure how swift of feet you are."

"Well if that's the case, I'll go first!" Krillin patted his legs and began to stretch in anticipation. "I'm more than swift enough to-"

"No." She wasn't at all surprised by the old man's interjection, nor by the measuring look that had returned to her by then. "I've seen Goku in action, and I'm confident of the level of skill a student of Oorin Temple should be at. As for Sakura...it's only fair that she goes first, given that she's yet to have a chance to prove herself."

Or, as was actually the case, he simply wished to see how much skill and power she was concealing.

"Wha-?" Krillin blinked, and then settled a disgruntled glare on her. "...Oh. _Fine_."

"If that's what you prefer." She placed a hand on her hip, and returned the old man's stare with a level one of her own.

"Very well then. Let's consider this a preliminary test!" He dug out a pocket watch. "Anyone who can't make it to the tree in thirteen seconds doesn't possess skill worthy of my effort."

"Wh- _What_?" Krillin gasped, and looked between the old man and the tree, nervous.

" _Awww_! But you said you'd let me train if I brought you a girl!" Goku huffed, and crossed his arms, looking sour. "You keep changing the rules..."

"Thirteen?" She couldn't help quirking a slight smirk at that, as she turned toward the tree. "If that's the case...I'm not sure your training is worth my time after all."


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "THIS ISN'T A DIFFERENT PLAN AT ALL!" The boy shrieked under her arm. "THIS IS SUICIDE!"

It didn't even matter she was already his least favorite person at the moment. He'd start up a running tally just to make sure when Goku did something stupid (extra stupid, as he invariably would) he wouldn't forget the things she did.

Like getting to run first. And making him have to try his hardest after _already e_ arning the right to train under Kamesennin, because thirteen seconds wasn't that far off from his personal best at that distance. At least there was a good chance that he'd get to have the training to himself, though. Goku might not be able to make it under thirteen, and there was no way some _girl_ like her could.

No matter how cocky she looked in her tattered uniform and tacky forehead tattoo.

When the old master bristled, he felt a terrified moment that her rude comment might get him to _decrease_ the time they had to make it in, just to spite the woman. Fortunately...the old man just scoffed, and walked toward the tree. "Well...we'll see, won't we?"

Sakura shifted on her feet somehow, though he...hadn't been paying enough attention to her to begin with to know exactly how. "Any time you're ready for me to start."

Master Roshi made it near to the tree, then turned and pulled up a stop watch. "...Go."

Air crashed across his face, and Goku made a startled sound. Belatedly, he realized that flash of black wasn't just him _blinking_ , it was the woman running. She wasn't really a _blur_ , he just didn't have time to properly register what she looked like running before it was over.

"Wh...wha...?"

"Time." She didn't even sound winded. _What the hell was that?_

Master Roshi blinked down at the watch for a moment or two. "...Three...point two."

" _What_?!"

(*)

She'd considered, just briefly, going all out. The distance was short enough that she could flicker the entire way there if she wanted to. But that would be taking the bait that the old man had blatantly laid down, and she couldn't be sure yet that these people weren't her enemies in some form or fashion. Even if they didn't want her dead any time soon, they still didn't need to know her full capabilities.

All the same, she'd had more than enough of his wounded pride. And she had her doubts, if he really knew enough to want to try her real capabilities, that he'd believe her holding back and making it 'just' under the time. It would serve her well enough to make him believe that this was the best she could do, and judging by the looks on their faces, they wouldn't expect better.

"That...that's amazing!" Goku shouted, hands up. "Show me how you did it!"

Krillin crossed his arms and looked haughtily off into the sky, clearly struggling to recover from the shock he initially expressed. "Y-Yeah...well! It's nothing next to what Master Roshi's time would be, right?"

Said master...sighed.

"Speaking of that. You did say each of us needed to display their skill for everyone, didn't you?" She turned her gaze to the old man. "If you can't make the thirteen seconds, you wouldn't qualify for your own training, would you?"

The old man bristled, and a moment later discarded the heavy looking turtle shell he usually wore. "...Well. I can see you're confident...but you'll need to do better to succeed outside of the atmosphere of training." He walked over toward where the other two stood, and began muttering something to them.

She barely had the chance to leap out of the way before he sped from there to the tree, kicking up a storm of dust and dirt, and earning twin shrieks from the boys. As he tapped his hand to the tree, his chest and shoulders heaved in heavy pants. Whatever his level of skill, clearly he hadn't used it in some time.

In the distance, she heard Krillin shout. "T-two-point-five! _Amazing_!"

The man harrumphed. Or attempted to, though how broken his breathing remained. "Hm. Not my best...but...as you can see. To exceed human limits, you must...push beyond. Them."

She would have been mildly concerned for his health if she weren't close enough to see that his vitality was still intact. If not all of his pride. The two boys ran up to where they were then, expressions a mixture of awe and excitement.

"Can I try?" Goku shouted, eyes sparkling. "I wanna try next!"

"Hm. Well. As I said, you will need to cross the distance in under thirteen seconds to qualify for my tutorship."

"Okay! But..." He frowned, and looked down at his feet. "Can I change my shoes first? These ones are broken."

(*)

 _Two and a half seconds_!

He was in such a daze, he was almost surprised that he made it in the time limit at all. But...it didn't help the fact that Goku got _eight_ seconds. Dammit, what just happened? How did he end up slower than the weird girl who almost drowned herself the day they met and the weird kid who traveled everywhere by riding a magical cloud?

He never imagined people could be so far beyond _...that._ People being stronger than him he was used to. Being in last place he was used to (though he swore he'd never be in last place again once he had Master Roshi's training under his belt). Master Roshi (...and Sakura. He would begrudgingly admit in just _one case_ ) blew out all of his expectations and imagination of the limits of humanity.

He couldn't decide if he was excited or frightened by that prospect, and the indecision made him uncomfortable.

Unfortunately, he didn't have all that much time to think about it. With all the time it took to run and get Goku new shoes and finish the competition, the sun was almost setting already. Training would begin in earnest tomorrow. Tomorrow would be the start of the rest of his life, where everything changed and turned around for the better.

Ten years from then...maybe even five, if he applied himself, the world would know his name.

Tonight, however...

The old master drew two stones out of his pockets and marked something on them. "It will take time for dinner to be made. In that time, I have a challenge for the three of you."

Sakura sighed. He squinted up at her, and then back at his master, but there didn't seem to be a reason for it, and the old man ignored her entirely.

"Do you see these?" He held the two out toward them, both of which had turtle scrawled across them in dark ink.

"...Okay...?" He shuffled a bit closer to figure out what it was about them that mattered. "They're just stones that you wrote on-"

The old man suddenly flung the first, and then the second, off of the cliff. "Go and find them. The one who returns without a stone won't have dinner." He turned and started toward the house. "And if any of you don't arrive in a half hour when it's done...you forfeit."

"W- _What_?"

(*)

No matter the dimension, it was clear that the bell test didn't change very much. Frankly, she couldn't decide if the reappearance of something like it in this old man's 'training' - or the prep for it, at least - was nostalgic or insulting. Her master's training had been intensive, but she hadn't retred things that genin and chuunin were already taught. Bell tests were as basic as a graduated student got.

...Even when they were upgraded to 'find the object in time' tests.

Still, she supposed there was no way she _couldn't_ play along with his training if she wanted to learn his techniques. Teachers were quite particular about who and how they imparted their secrets to. Much as it was a waste of her time to do this instead of searching for a way out, as long as she _was_ trapped, she wanted to figure out his prize jutsu.

That didn't stop her from walking up to the cliff instead of running to it like the boys did. She frowned down the cliff. It was too far for a sheer drop, but it wouldn't be too difficult to run down it, or at least glide. Goku, however, seemed to disagree. She was...actually kind of impressed to see him swan dive off of the cliff, even though that pet of his would probably break his fall.

"Ugah!" Krillin gave an exasperated shout as he stared over the edge. "What's up with him? It's like he wants to die!"

She planted her hands on her hips as she judged the amount of chakra that would be required to get her to slide down the side instead of walk (no reason to reveal that she could just walk down it if apparently that wasn't something they knew how to do). "More likely he's hungry. I've got a friend like that. He'd probably be dumb enough to jump off, too."

With his new Kurama mode, he'd probably be just fine, too.

"Eh...? You've got a friend?" Krillin blinked up at her, as if that were somehow an _actual surprise,_ before he shook his head and smacked his cheeks. "Oh no! I can't waste time with you, I've got to get back there!"

For a moment, she watched him sprint in the opposite direction, obviously intent to find the safe path down. And obviously not understanding the nature of the challenge. "If you want to get down there before Goku gets back, come with me."

He stopped, and looked over his shoulder. "Huh...?"

"You don't want him getting a huge head start, right?" She offered him a friendly smile, and held out a hand. "There's two stones. We might as well use teamwork, right?" Plus, that's generally what these kind of tests were for, anyway.

For a long few moments, he stared at her suspiciously.

"If you want to give up, that's up to you. But...you know, I'm faster than both of you, and he never said I couldn't take both of them for myself and leave you without food."

He grumbled something under his breath, and then reluctantly trudged back to her. "...Alright, alright. What's your plan to get down there that isn't suicidal?"

"This." She scooped the small child up under her arm. Easily, despite the boy's flailing, and jumped off of the cliff.

" _THIS ISN'T A DIFFERENT PLAN AT ALL!"_ The boy shrieked under her arm as she calculated the appropriate angle to contact with the cliff-face at. _"THIS IS SUICIDE!"_

And...there it was. Just before her feet contacted with the rapidly moving dirt, she summoned a cushion of chakra, and began to ski down the side of the dirt at a much more controlled speed than free-fall. "Don't move." If he tried to kick or squirm too much, he might connect with the cliff side and not only would it hurt him, but it would throw off her control of the fall.

"I...I'm too terrified to do that...!"

Just as the trees approached, she kicked off of the ground and hopped across a few branches, before finally setting onto the ground with a light thump. "Not bad, right?" She set the child down, and glanced down at his expression with a faint sense of amusement. Really, given what she'd seen so far, it didn't surprise her at all that he wasn't familiar with using chakra to secure one's feet to surfaces, much less more advanced forms of it.

"Y...you really _are_ the worst." He glared up at her, and then dashed off into the trees. "There's no way I'd team up with you!"

She sighed after a moment, and shook her head, listening to the sounds of both boys frantically searching the nearby forest on their own.

 _Genin_...

Well. If they wouldn't behave, at least that made her job of finding the stone much easier.

And also gave her an opportunity to go out and search for information while she played along with the hermit's games. She'd rested enough, she'd recovered more than enough chakra. Two shadow clones, one to help her find the stone (considering the small area they had fallen in), and one to go meet the islanders.

Even if the last time she'd played a game like this she'd still been an academy student, that wasn't any excuse to go and lose.

(*)

"You're... _joking_..."

He stared at his wise old master in a sort of numb shock that could only come from crushing disappointment following a half hour of grueling work and high stress.

The man shook his head. "Ah...if only."

Goku looked as if someone had stolen...food...from him. Which they had, so actually that was probably a more appropriate expression than his own. The boy was as covered in sweat, leaves, and twigs as himself. Well, maybe slightly less, but then he had purposefully covered himself in a few more when he'd tried and failed to switch out rocks a bit earlier.

Sakura just looked...peeved. Which she didn't have any right to be, since she didn't even look tired despite somehow getting a rock before he could. (Stupid random chance...)

The old man shook his head again, and turned back toward the house, walking toward it. "I'm afraid...I forgot to buy groceries in all of the excitement of moving and beginning training today."

None of them got any food that night after all.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Didn't I say? I'm Sakura Haruno. Student of the Fifth Hokage. There isn't a training regiment harsher than hers."

It wouldn't be her first time starting training on an empty stomach. She didn't really mind. Her shadow clone had gone around the island (under henge, naturally) collecting what information she could over the day, and only dispelled at night when the denizens of the island had gone to sleep. The fact that it had come back with almost no information of use bothered her.

Really. There wasn't even a decently sized library or archive hall to be found. It seemed she would be deprived of any further information even while she was stuck on this island. At least the information she'd gathered indicated that there were many more, perhaps an entire civilization's worth of, people around the world. It was a world, apparently.

Or she was being lied to. Or this was some sort of convoluted genjutsu.

Or those.

About when she was finally finished digesting the flash of information her shadow clone delivered to her, the door to her room opened, and Goku wandered in. "Hey...can I share with you?" He rubbed at his hair sleepily. "Grandpa and Krillin are taking up all the room in the other bed."

She squinted at him. From her experience so far, she wouldn't have taken him for the kind of person to try to excuse his way into a girl's bed. "...And they haven't before?"

"Yeah, well...Grandpa Roshi said I can't sleep on Nimbus outside while we're here. He said it's 'too dangerous'." He didn't sound very convinced of the fact...so it was likely that there were certain threats involved that didn't have to do with danger to get him to agree. Whether it was because the island really did have some kind of threats she hadn't discovered yet, or whether he was just being a pervert as usual, though...

She huffed after a few moments, and scooted into the bed, gesturing at the outer edge. "Just remember: I could kill you with my bare hands, got it?"

Goku blinked, and stared at her in confusion for a moment or two. "Um...does that mean you want to fight instead...?"

...She really wasn't quite sure what to make of him at all. For as much as some of his actions reminded her of Naruto, others reminded her of Sai.

Or...of no one at all.

She probably just assigned familiarity to things just because she was here instead of home, and alone instead of with her team and friends. Her frown faded into nothing, and she glanced down at the blankets over her legs. "...Just don't snore too loud, or you can sleep on the stairs."

She couldn't see his expression, but he made a pleased sort of laugh, and crawled into the bed next to her. "I don't think I snore. Grandpa and Bulma never said anything!"

She sighed softly and settled down into the bed as he made himself at home on his half. Regardless of how much noise he made, she probably wouldn't get very much sleep anyway.

(*)

He expected grueling training. Waking up at four in the morning after running all over hell to find a stone (for nothing!) was just unfair. It wasn't even hard or useful! It was just _mean_.

The master seemed to recognize exactly none of his sulking over the matter. But then, the man had spent most of the morning mumbling to himself and making furtive glances up the stairs as if he were thinking about going in to look after the pink freak girl. Krillin was actually a little impressed by his master's persistence: after seeing just how weird she was, even his natural instincts weren't enough to make him want to go anywhere near her.

That said, as far as grueling training went, running around the island wasn't actually that hard, even on an empty stomach and with little sleep. Every so often he glanced over his shoulder. Despite her showing yesterday, she seemed content to simply jog behind all of them, watching the island around her with a bored sort of expression.

Eventually, the master stopped in front of a building in the village, and spoke with its resident quietly for a moment or two, before turning back to them. "Alright then! Everyone take a carton! We'll be delivering this milk."

He blinked. Clearly, he must have misheard the old man. Instead of 'delivering' it, he must have meant 'devouring' it. Because they missed two meals, and they were important meals. "... _Delivering milk_?"

(*)

She was convinced now, this training was nothing more than genin training. How many times had she delivered milk, groceries, and other heavy or ungainly items around the village or across the fire nation? More times than she'd wanted to count at the time, certainly. It had its place at the time, and she could easily see that it would do Goku and Krillin well (given how exhausted they looked trying to make it up the many steps of the plateau with cartons in hand), but it was of no use to her. She could have delivered all of it herself in less time and little more effort.

The old man watched her silently as he smoked his long pipe, and they waited for the two young boys to make it to the top.

"This course...I haven't ever given it to you before, have I?"

She arched an eyebrow. "Do you forget pretty girls that easily?"

He chuckled, and let out a puff of smoke. "Of course not. Which means...someone else must have trained you instead."

She watched him for a moment, considering her options. While it was true it was to her advantage to ensure he knew as little about her as possible should he be an enemy or some sort of spy of Kaguya...it was hardly a secret that she trained under Tsunade. Furthermore, she wasn't ashamed of it at all. She was proud of it.

She tilted her head to the side, and offered him a faint smile. "Didn't I say? I'm Sakura Haruno. Student of the Fifth Hokage. There isn't a training regiment harsher than hers."

"Hokage..." He muttered under his breath, thoughtful. "Now...what in the world is that...?"

Before she could make any attempt to answer, Goku finally arrived, looking winded and worn, but not tired enough to make her concerned. Krillin was...perhaps a little closer to a point where she was worried he might collapse backward off of the mountain if he wasn't careful.

She frowned, and gestured toward a rock. "Sit down and rest."

"E-eh?" He looked up at her, suspicious as always (exactly what was it that he thought she was planning?). "What are you talking about?"

"This is a break. Take the opportunity to regain your stamina."

He scowled up at her, and then made a furtive glance over toward Roshi. Who remained impassive behind his glasses, puffing at his pipe. "...I'm not tired. If _you_ wanna take a break, then you do it."

She slowly straightened, and shook her head. Maybe the reason she kept feeling homesick and reminded of people that weren't so similar to the boys at all was because when it came to teamwork the two of them were _just_ as bad as Team 7 once was.

"Ah! It's been some time since I've seen such a large group with you!" A strange voice caught her attention away from the stubborn young boy, and she turned toward it with curiosity.

"Yes, well...it _has_ been some time since I've encountered so many with such promise at once." The old man stood and approached the other. Most likely he'd been waiting for this person to arrive, rather than explicitly waiting for Goku and Krillin to catch up.

The two boys chattered excitedly with each other at his offhanded compliment, and she carefully walked past them to get a better look at the person. He was one of the few she didn't get the opportunity to speak to before nightfall the day before. The chances of him having any special information were unlikely, but given that he was some sort of personal acquaintance of one of the people she woke up with, there was _some_ chance of it being significant.

The man looked over to her with surprise after a moment. "Oh. What an extra-rare occurrence! Have you ever had a female student before now? I can't remember..."

He huffed. "It _is_ unusual...but she's proven herself ready for training. And needing of more."

The man's eyes thinned in suspicion then. "Now, when you say she's 'proven herself' I don't suppose you mean that she's-"

" _Nothing like that happened_!" She growled, gripping her hand into a fist. As much as she wasn't surprised someone would think of the old pervert that way, the idea that someone would think she was the sort of woman to _go along with that_ was unacceptable. She blamed the immediate outburst simply on being so on-edge already with his antics.

"Well..." Roshi cackled in a slow and knowing way. "If that's what you want to-"

Almost before she even realized what her own hand was doing, her fist came down and walloped him upside his shiny bald head.

Possibly a touch stronger than she needed to.

(*)

For a little bit there, Krillin was concerned the morning routine of milk delivery had been for nothing, and the legendary turtle hermit would never actually get up again. It certainly looked that way for a bit, anyway. During it, Sakura hadn't even looked all that apologetic, either.

It took up the rest of the early morning before he actually came to properly, at least. The old master might have looked a little more successfully disgruntled if he didn't have an obvious knot on the top of his head from where Sakura had smacked him.

...It was an uneasy reminder of that strength she occasionally displayed. Sure, she hadn't shown any strain at all carrying the milk bottles, even up the mountain, but that could have been for many reasons! That thing that sent the turtle hermit flying into the sea and tore those clothes apart, though...apparently his mind just preferred to suppress those unpleasant memories as quickly as it could.

It was difficult to suppress them when looking at that injury, though.

"Now..." Master Roshi huffed. "As it's your first day, I'll forgive your inability to finish the milk run! From tomorrow onward, however, we'll finish it each day as our early morning training. And then...you'll begin your morning training."

The old master gestured out at rolling hills of fields that looked almost endless. They couldn't be, since he knew the island wasn't all _that_ big...but still. They were kind of impressive.

"Till this field."

He choked. "This...entire...?"

"Hmm?" His master glanced over at him. "Oh. No. Only this one section today. Over the next eight months, however, you'll have this entire thing finished."

"Eight months?" There was an edge of irritation in her voice that made him tense.

"Eight months." The old man nodded. "That's the time you'll have until the next Tenkaichi Budokai. If you are strong enough to enter it by then, your training will be complete."

"Ten..." He stuttered into silence as he stared up at his master. _Strong enough to enter the Tenkaichi Budokai? That's insane! I'll never be able to reach that level in just eight months. Damn...I didn't want to face failure that quickly..._

"As for the two of you, however..." The master settled a level gaze on him, specifically. "I expect you'll be ready in five."

He...didn't know what to think about that. For a few moments, in his own head, there was only silence. Shock, and silence.

Then Goku spoke. "Tenka...what'cha call it?'

"You...you're a martial artist and you don't know what the Tenkaichi Budokai is?" Krillin turned back toward his fellow students, to see a blank and puzzled look on Goku's face, and...uh. No, he really didn't know how to read Sakura's expressions. She was weird, and he didn't like it.

He felt too good about what his master had just said to let her get him down. "...Well, it's a tournament for the world's strongest fighters! Only the top fighters can participate, and the winner is crowned as the strongest!"

Goku gasped in surprise. "The _strongest_? Ah! I can't wait!"

Somehow, it didn't surprise him that Sakura didn't say anything on the matter. She simply watched Master Roshi, as if she were considering something. Totally not interested in the tournament at all. 

He added it to her negative points.

"Well...none of you are going to make it if you don't start _training_!" The old man pointed to the field again. "Start tilling! If you don't do it quickly, you won't get any breakfast either!"

...As much as Goku immediately raced into action and his tummy urged him to do the same, he really did hope that the old master actually _had_ food to give them this time.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> That Sakura girl was a monster. That was the only reasonable answer to the situation.
> 
> And it made it totally okay that he still couldn't stand her, because that was the only reasonable response a person could have to a monstrous girl like that.

She'd put up with the training methods throughout much of the day.

Aside from the reading assignment. She really couldn't say she 'put up' with something that gave her such satisfaction. A part of her hoped he would be idiot enough to try it again the next day, just so she could enjoy his expression when she collected his dirty books and tore them apart again.

The rest of it, however, she tolerated. She took the opportunity to explore more of the island while they slept, and she relived her genin days right down to the pointless D rank missions. It was just as droll and boring as she remembered it being, and far less difficult.

As the day went on, she rapidly lost any concept of respect for his ability to judge skill and train according to that. She was most certainly _not_ going to waste eight precious months of her time on retaking genin missions and practicing menial labor she'd long ago mastered. She wasn't going to stay for eight months at all if there were any physical possibility of her leaving before then...but wasting them as a genin? No.

That said, it didn't actually surprise her it was the children who broke first and complained.

"As they said." She nodded, crossing her arms. "If these skills are required to learn that jutsu, then there's no reason for me to waste any more time on this."

He glared at the three of them, puffing up like an offended old bird. "You think so? Well then!" He pointed to a small boulder behind where she stood, which they had passed not long before he'd started in on about swimming and the boys had begun complaining. "Move that boulder! Until you possess the strength to move that, you're not ready for my advanced techniques!"

Krillin stuttered in shock as he stared at it. "Wha-there's no way that anyone could ever move that!"

It was a quarter of the size of the rock she'd shattered a year and a half before. But then, he'd said move it, not shatter it. She turned toward it and walked up to where it was, dimly aware of Roshi beginning a stock lecture about training. She'd heard its like _many_ times before.

Even as she lifted her hand, her body was already unconsciously supplying the chakra she needed. She'd practiced it for so long, that it actually took conscious effort _not_ to use her chakra-enhanced strength now. It was a little known secret of the Fifth Hokage's jutsu that the masters of the technique didn't need to summon chakra at all. To her, the activation of her chakra network in the action was no different than the activation of her nervous system required to move.

One hand pressed to the rock. "Hup." The sound was to catch the attention of the three chattering boys more than anything else, as it was such a small load she could probably have knocked it across the island with her finger, if she really wanted to.

As it was, the shove simply sent the rock sliding across the field, and then tumbling down the small hill they'd climbed to get up to the lake. There wasn't any need to be excessive beyond that level. She did like to keep her limits a secret, after all.

She settled a challenging look over her shoulder at the old hermit. "Is that advanced enough for your taste?"

He gaped at where the rock had been for a few moments, stuttered and coughed to himself, and then...laughed. Much too loudly. "Hahaha! Oh! Oh, silly old me! I chose the wrong size. As you can see, _anyone_ of any skill could move a tiny little rock like that!"

He cast about desperately for a moment or two, while the two boys stared wide-eyed up at him. As if they actually believed him.

" _Ah!"_ He scrambled off a few feet to the right, and pointed his cane triumphantly toward a rock...slightly larger than the one that had guarded Gaara's body. "Here we are!" He cackled and settled his arms behind his back. "Yes. Move _this_ one, and your physical training will be complete."

While she still walked, observing the old man's mix of triumph and concern at her approach, Goku ran excitedly up to the rock. "Okay then! Let me try!" He pushed first with one hand, and then with both. For a few moments he groaned and grunted, struggling to gain some sort of leverage with his feet and turning multiple shades of red from effort.

Naturally, as happened with anyone who hadn't mastered her technique or didn't possess truly _monstrous_ strength, the rock did nothing.

"Ouugh..." He panted as he collapsed against the side of it. "It's no use...I can't move it at all."

The old coot brightened immediately, apparently deciding that he'd chosen an appropriately impossible goal this time (as it was clear that was his actual intent. She'd seen similar techniques from many teachers before). "As I said! Without proper training, it's impossible to move!"

"If that's the case, you'll show us-"

"I get a try on this one too, right?" She cut into Krillin's question before it could continue on. The three of them immediately fell silent, and looked at her with...varying shades of suspicion. Goku's expression was actually surprise, but the other two were wary and suspicious. As if they were the ones who'd woken up kidnapped by strange people in a strange world in the middle of a war.

Frankly, getting to punch a rock this big would be something of a stress reliever, under the circumstances.

"Goku, can you move out of the way?"

He blinked, and then nodded, trotting over to stand next to Krillin again.

"Now...Sakura, don't be-"

She cocked back her fist, and with a shout summoned a spiral of extra chakra, punching the rock square in the middle of its base.

It didn't roll like the other one, nor did it go tumbling over the edge of a cliff, but it did get a bit of air time, before it slammed into the ground a few feet ahead of her with an almighty _crash_ that nearly knocked her company off of their feet  by the reverberations in the ground.

Now...

_That_ felt kind of good.

When she turned back to look at the old coot and his students, satisfied smile on her face, not a single one of them said a word.

(*)

Occasionally, he felt like complaining about Sakura getting to skip through the grueling, sometimes monotonous, training and get right to learning cool flashy moves at home instead. Those kinds of feelings vanished every moment he looked over at the _gigantic mountain of rock_ she punched clear across a field.

She was a monster.

She appeared out of the sky, she could fly on a cloud, stick to walls, and _punch mountains_.

That Sakura girl was _a monster_. That was the only reasonable answer to the situation.

And it made it totally okay that he still couldn't stand her, because that was the only reasonable response a person could have to a monstrous girl like that.

Most of the time, though, he didn't even complain. The training got easier at time went on, even though it got more severe. His hands and legs didn't go numb any longer, the dorky shells they were forced to wear didn't slow them down on runs any more, and he hardly ever got stung.

Soon, he was sure that _soon_ he'd be able to move on to real training. That rock was still pretty intimidating (and not just because it was a sign of the deadly weird chick they had to live with) but Goku seemed totally pumped and _determined_ to get it done. It was kind of infectious, his optimism.

So there was that.

He still wasn't ready to try to push it himself, though.

(*)

In retrospect, she occasionally looked back at displaying her power and wondered if it might have been a mistake. As a subtler bait than some of the other attempts he'd made, she'd fallen for the taunt. But even without using her full strength or potential, the display had _actually_ impressed (and quite clearly frightened) the old man anyway.

And it had gotten her what she wanted. While the boys worked through the day to strengthen themselves in tried and true methods, she studied. Actual books and techniques, not the perverted nonsense he made the boys read. It was probably one of the more important things she could have learned while present, in fact. If it wasn't a dream.

Ki.

From what she'd figured out, it was _essentially_ chakra, but drawn upon differently. And, when manipulated, it seemed to have an easier potential for powerful release of it with less strain on the user. And, notably, without an elemental basis. It must have been using Yin or Yang chakra, or some strange combination of the two.

Most exciting: it wasn't a kekkai genkai.

The most difficult part, unfortunately, was managing to summon 'ki' instead of chakra. The method seemed to bypass creating it using stamina, but a lifetime of ingrained training wasn't easy to shake. Nor was it something she _wanted_ to shake, outside of her attempts to master the ki technique.

"You're concentrating too hard." The old man huffed. "If your ki doesn't flow out naturally, you'll never be able to manipulate it properly. You own energy will blow up in your face."

A part of her immediately bristled at the concept that she wouldn't know how to control her own energy, ki, or chakra. Whatever the term that happened to be used, it was an insult to imply she couldn't.

A larger part of her controlled herself, as she closed her eyes and focused. When it came to ki, at least...she didn't have nearly the skill she did with chakra. It remained to be seen if the talent she showed for control of chakra would actually apply to this alternate style or not.

The trouble was...although the time had passed quickly, though she'd been studying and working hard, _time still passed_. From days, to weeks...to months. The frustration and despair that she felt every time she thought about home, thought about how long she'd been trapped and unable to return to where she belonged, nearly made her collected energy explode out of her every time.

It was, apparently, much more respondent to emotion than chakra. She didn't find that to be something in her favor.

"Now you aren't concentrating enough!" The man's knotted wooden cane smacked down on her knee. "Ki isn't a science! It is an _art_. If you can't feel the way it flows through you and adapt your mind and actions instinctively to it, it's useless to teach you anything about it at all."

She settled an irritated gaze on the old pervert, antagonized both by her continued failure, and by the mild soreness left in her knee from his repeated smacks. And the way the ridiculous turtle shell he insisted she wear chafed her shoulders. "Perhaps you should attempt to use _chakra-_ "

"Grandpa! _Grandpa_!" Goku burst into the room, startling her out of her concentration and speech. "Grandpa! Come quick, come quick!"

She stood even before the old man did, frowning. "What's wrong? Has something happened to Krillin?"

He glanced up at her for a moment, then reached out to grab both of their wrists, excitedly sprinting out of the building with them. "Come on! Come on, this way!"

"Goku-!" Roshi struggled to speak as he stumbled after the much shorter young boy. "W-what exactly is going on? Goku!"

Either by design or overwhelming excitement, the child refused to respond to the question, simply chanting 'this way, this way!' as he ran across the island. Eventually, she realized that they'd run up to the lake that held the rather impressively large sharks. For just a moment, she worried that something had gone wrong and Krillin somehow managed to get eaten.

Fortunately enough, that worry was dispelled once she saw the small one standing several feet away from the water.

Next to that rock she'd knocked over the first day.

... _Oh_.

She glanced over at the old man, who looked...very bewildered, more than anything else. Was the expression disbelief, or actual confusion? It was difficult to read him at times, given the irritating sunglasses he wore almost constantly.

"Goku..." She started, turning her attention back to the two young boys who beamed with pride. "Could it be that..."

Krillin planted his fists on his hips. "We _can_ move it now!"

For a few moments, Roshi simply stood still and stared at them, and then at the rock. Actually, it was long enough, she was beginning to wonder if he even remembered the challenge at all, or if he had altered his memories to make himself believe he'd simply given her different training out of the goodness and wisdom of his heart.

Finally, though, the old man spoke.

"... _What_."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: The reason for quite such a rapid release here is actually that chapters six and seven were going to be one chapter, but then I realized that it was double the normal length, without anything particularly substantial happening to make it worth that extra length.
> 
> So, instead, two chapters of not-quite-filler. There wasn't too much to put here that wouldn't have dragged incredibly, because Master Roshi's training is pretty monotonous, and it's essentially a training montage.
> 
> That said, don't worry too much about the pacing, because it will slow back down. There was simply a lot of things that needed to be glossed over without being entirely ignored in these two chapters.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The opportunity to visit a considerably larger city, one with libraries, archives, and far more people to investigate and converse with meant her best opportunity so far to find a way back home. She couldn't pass it up, even if she had no interest in a tournament to determine the strongest of a different world's people.

"...Say...say that again?" The old man's voice trembled, as if he were really disbelieving that his students could do as they said. It did nothing for rebuilding the respect he'd lost over the day of pointless training he'd subjected her to before the ki training began.

She planted her hand on her hip and watched the two, curious. "You two can move that rock on your own?"

Krillin squinted up at her a moment, before huffing. "Not...very far...but..." The bald one turned toward the rock and planted his hands against it. He dug his feet into the ground, grit his teeth, and _very slowly_ began to shove the mountainous boulder away.

He managed only a few inches before collapsing onto his knees. "S... _See?_ " It wasn't far, but the demand had never come with a distance requirement.

Goku puffed out his chest then, and ran up to the rock. "My turn, my turn!"

She glanced over at the hermit. He looked as if he'd eaten some bad octopus. She felt a small flicker of satisfaction at that. _Really_. Masters who don't expect their students to exceed weren't very good masters at all. Then again, she might have been a bit biased.

When Goku approached the rock, he crouched down a little, and drew back his arm, clenching his fist. Which was...interesting! She leaned in a bit, so that she could get a look at him. There was no way he could have learned how to precisely control chakra without training, but could he have really gained enough strength in Roshi's training alone to replicate her actions? In the time that he had, that simply shouldn't be _possible_.

In the end, it wasn't.

When his fist collided with the rock, though, it did still move, sliding and then rolling about a foot before its weight slowed it back down to a stop.

The old man choked.

(*)

He couldn't really tell. Was he excited? Did he feel a little betrayed by his Master's trickery? Disappointed? He'd built up so much in his mind what the training would be, what great secret techniques he'd learn from the old man...and then it turned out to be nothing.

Which meant that when Sakura was doing 'advanced training' she was _really_ just sitting around in the house doing nothing all day! Other than wear the dumb shell, anyway.

...No, he was at least excited enough not to dwell on whatever that freakishly strong woman had been doing for the past six months. He was going to go to the Tenkaichi Budokai in two months. And...maybe he didn't have any chance to win, but he'd barely ever let himself imagine even going there before. If they could actually make it _into_ the tournament...

Those ten...five years didn't seem too far away already. He'd be a champion. He'd be famous. Girls would fawn over him, and no one would ever call him a weakling or a loser anymore.

He stared up at the ceiling in the dark, unable to sleep.

Two months from now, everything was going to change.

He was sure.

(*)

"...If you won't go to sleep, you can go to the living room."

She understood his excitement. She'd experienced exactly that more than once, and had similar reactions. Completing a round of training, realizing just what she'd accomplished...it could be an amazing feeling.

She still didn't feel like laying in bed listening to Goku vibrate in excitement over it. And it _was_ audible, given all the fidgeting and rolling around he did. She was about a minute away from forcibly ejecting him from the bed and locking the door.

"Sorry..." He didn't sound all that sorry, but at least he stopped moving around so much. Which was good, because if she was going to get up and do her own warm ups and training while the men in the house were off delivering milk, she didn't have long to rest.

"...How did you get so strong?"

She huffed, before rolling onto her back to get a look at him. Unsurprisingly, he was propped up on an elbow, watching her intently, eyes sparkling in the dark. The question was...a little unusual. Most of the time, they didn't bother asking her questions about her. As if a girl falling through the sky was normal enough not to rouse any curiosity from them.

It was part of the reason she'd started to forget they might be spies of Kaguya.

"I told you...I was trained by the fifth Hokage. There isn't a stronger or better teacher in the world." She refused to say 'wasn't'. Even if she'd been useless to save everyone, the rest of Team 7 would have pulled through and dispelled the genjutsu. Lady Tsunade was still presiding over Konoha.

He brightened. " _Really_? The strongest in the world? Even more than old man Roshi?"

She scoffed lightly. "Much more. There's...almost no one stronger than her at all."

He sat up in excitement, looking over at her with wide eyes. "Can I meet her? Where is she? I want to learn from her, next!"

"She's..."

Her heart clenched suddenly, and she turned her gaze away from Goku out into the sky, as if she could just...find the way back home by looking at the stars hard enough. "...Home. Far, far away from here."

He was quiet for a moment, but she could easily picture his thoughtful expression. "When we're done training...if you want to, you could come with me on Nimbus! Wherever your house is in the world, I'm sure we'll find it quickly that way!"

Unless, as was true, this was an entirely different dimension after all.

"If you don't get to sleep, I'm gonna kick you out of here."

He was quiet a moment, before dropping back down onto the bed. A moment later, he made a small noise of discomfort, and shifted. It was slight, but...recognizable. She turned slightly, and looked over her shoulder. "...Is something wrong?"

"Uh...no." He shook his head. "My hand hurts a little."

Most likely, he meant the hand that hit the rock, so she sat up and turned toward him. For a moment, she held out her hand expectantly...and then reached out to take his hand, instead. After all, it wasn't like the people in the house knew she was a medic. And she wasn't going to reveal that yet if she didn't have to.

But she was still going to have a look at his hand, regardless of how much he intended on pretending it wasn't injured.

"You should cushion your attacks with...ki when you hit things like that." Normally, she would have said chakra, but even if he'd known what that was, it wasn't exactly an easy technique to attempt. And she wasn't about to teach him.

She pressed her thumb against a point that she suspected might have been the trouble spot, and he winced. "See, you could have broken your hand if you hit it much harder without strengthening your hand more."

Actually, he had _definitely_ fractured one of the bones a little, considering his reaction.

He huffed. "I've hit lots of things before. My hands always feel better by tomorrow."

She squinted down at him a moment...and summoned a trickle of healing chakra anyway. Maybe it wouldn't hurt in the morning regardless, but she wasn't about to risk his hand on the chores he'd be doing tomorrow without at least a little bit of healing.

"Still, you'd better be careful. If you break your arm or leg, you won't be able to go to the tournament."

He flexed his hand slightly, looking up at it as if he already felt the difference her chakra caused in it, and then flopped his arm back onto the bed with a determined expression. "No way! I'm _definitely_ gonna make it to the tournament. And I'm gonna win!"

(*)

Two months went by quicker than ever. The turtle shells had started out way heavier, but by the end of the first month, he didn't really notice the difference anymore. Of course, his mind was increasingly full of anticipation, anxiousness, and excitement for the upcoming tournament. So...that might have been part of the reason.

But that wasn't important anymore. Eventually, it came to the day.

The old man and the monster-girl had both removed the shells they'd worn even though they weren't competing (at least...she wore the shell when he saw her. For all he knew while she was slacking off in the house she didn't bother to wear the shell, either. It wasn't like Master Roshi would have done anything about it since she'd probably...punch him in half...or something else scary.)

The old man wore some kind of traveling suit that looked ancient and a little threadbare, and she...wore some kind of red shirt and shorts ensemble he'd never seen before. Obviously while they had been training she must have gone shopping. If it weren't for his excitement, he'd be a little annoyed.

He absolutely _couldn't_ be annoyed by anything, though. The way he could jump was _almost like flying_. He could probably even do that cliff like it was nothing! (He didn't go and try, though. It'd...mess up his new suit. Yeah.) And they were finally making their way to the tournament! He might never have felt so excited before in his life.

Also, he was kind of amused to see Sakura's white-knuckled grip on the seat in front of him. Somehow she didn't care about jumping to her death, but something like a _plane_...

"Wow! We're flying!" Goku pressed his face against the glass of the window so hard his words were almost muffled. "But it's not as fast as Nimbus..."

"It feels like it's about to rattle _apart_." She spoke through her teeth, and looked a little sick. Normally, he'd think maybe she just had a fear of airplanes...but she looked as bewildered by the plane as Goku had when they were walking up to it.

"Seriously...how have you two guys not ridden a plane before?" He sighed and shook his head. The two of them were a little embarrassing to ride with.

A stewardess shrieked behind him, where Master Roshi must have been sitting.

He sighed.

(*)

It was a singularly uncomfortable feeling to be propelled through the air at such a height without any form of control over it. She had probably recovered enough chakra to briefly activate mitotic regeneration if something did happen, but it was not something she was trained to be comfortable with. And it was _strange_. At times, she couldn't help but wonder what might happen if somehow it reverted to the small capsule form many things did while they were still inside it.

She didn't regret traveling with them, though. The opportunity to visit a considerably larger city, one with libraries, archives, and far more people to investigate and converse with meant her best opportunity so far to find a way back home. She couldn't pass it up, even if she had no interest in a tournament to determine the strongest of a different world's people.

Still, she felt obligated to at least accompany the boys into the sign ups, if nothing else. She might even watch their rounds, once they made it into the tournament itself. Four battles wasn't that terribly long, after all.

She settled a hand on her hip as they bounced around and tested the new red gi that their old master provided for the tournament. (She had a suspicion if she'd agreed to compete too the uniforms would have looked much worse than those) It wasn't the same at all, and they didn't look at all alike, but the sight of them in new uniforms still reminded her of the Shinobi Alliance and the uniforms everyone wore to show solidarity.

She swallowed down a weight on her chest and looked away from the two of them, watching the crowd of fighters instead.

Every so often...when she watched them train, it felt like watching Naruto and Sasuke again. They worked hard, they excelled (a _surprising_ amount, considering how much they changed over only half a year) and they relished in competition and the endless struggle to improve just for improvement's sake. Of course, they didn't have the rivalry that Sasuke and Naruto had...but...the similarity still made her heart clench painfully from time to time.

Krillin huffed. "...If we lose in these though, we're gonna look really dumb."

She turned her attention back to the boys with a frown. "Looking dumb isn't what you need to worry about." She clenched her fist in front of her. "If you don't make it into the top eight, you'll waste my time coming here, _got it_?"

Both boys shrank back slightly. Which was good, because it meant they were listening, at least.

"You've got what it takes to make it through the preliminaries, I know it. So if you don't make it, I'll know you weren't trying, and I'll _beat you down_."

"U-uhh..." Krillin glanced over at Goku, nervous. "That's...high stakes..."

"I'm not scared!" Goku clenched his fists in front of him. "You don't have to worry about it, because I'm gonna _win_!"

The old man scoffed. "Well...I don't think you'll do _that_ your first time through...but as long as you make it through the preliminaries, I'll be able to watch you from the crowd. I'll be happy if I can do at least that. Now, go on. I need to find my way to the visitors station..."

She gave the two of them a little wave, and they dashed away into the building, both visibly a little brighter.

As she turned to follow after the old man, she found him still standing where he was before. And looking up at her with an intense frown. "Before the tournament starts, there's something important that must be done."


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tournaments and competitions weren't really the kind of thing she liked. The Chuunin exams hadn't been the best of experiences for her either time she'd taken them, and...except to keep up with the others, she'd never had the same competitive spirit as Naruto and Sasuke. If she was strong enough to do what she needed to do, it was enough.

"Before the tournament begins, there is something important that must be done."

She frowned at him, suspicious. In the time that she'd known him, she'd begun to think he was actually more perverted than Naruto or the late toad-hermit Jiraiya. It didn't instill very much faith in her over what he might deem 'important'. Or why he'd consider it her business.

"Come with me quickly, we'll speak as we walk."

...She still didn't trust his intentions, but if it was a time sensitive matter, she had little choice but to follow him. And do him harm if it turned out to be some sort of frivolous attempt at peeping on whatever few females were present.

"What is it? What did you want?"

He turned his gaze up to her again. "I need you to enter the tournament."

(*)

He felt sick to his stomach. It was probably best he didn't eat anything on the plane after all. All the confidence he'd felt on the island when he'd been weightless and moved things he'd never imagined moving before had steadily drained since he'd arrived at the tournament and seen all the impressive and scary looking opponents.

After all, even if they were able to jump high and hit hard, the old turtle hermit hadn't taught them any _martial arts_. And that had been what he'd been expecting most from the training. The people wandering around the building sure looked like _they'd_ been trained with secret techniques and finishing moves that would pass in the blink of an eye.

That attack his master used on Sakura the first day he'd been on the island would have been useful, even.

Somehow. Probably.

He sighed as he stared at the match ups on the wall.

"I've made a terrible mistake..."

Goku, who had been staring down at his paper, glanced up immediately. "What?"

"I uh..." He frowned. Saying it out loud where someone could hear it made it sound worse somehow. Especially when his company seemed so _excited_ and not really scared at all. "Let's...hope we don't fight each other in the preliminaries, right? That way we've got a chance to both make it to the finals."

Supposedly, anyway.

Goku beamed. "Yeah! I'm sure we'll both make it, and then we can fight in the finals!"

He gave a nervous laugh. "Yeah...the finals."

One of the referees shouted across the building. "Combatants Sixty-nine and Seventy!"

"Oh! That's me!" Goku turned and sprinted off toward the ring.

For some weird reason, Goku's excitement was getting to be infectious.

(*)

She frowned. Tournaments and competitions weren't really the kind of thing she liked. The Chuunin exams hadn't been the best of experiences for her either time she'd taken them, and...except to keep up with the others, she'd never had the same competitive spirit as Naruto and Sasuke. If she was strong enough to do what she needed to do, it was enough. Competing in a tournament meant for the denizens of an entirely separate dimension was even less important to her.

Yet, here she was doing exactly that instead of spending that time searching the city. Maybe she'd thought about watching Goku and Krillin's matches, as many as they might have, but competing was an entirely different level of trouble.

As much as she knew this was just another step in his endless attempt to figure out exactly how far her skills and abilities stretched, it was also the most aware she'd ever seen him behave when it came to the capabilities of his _actual_ students.

_"They've become much too strong too quickly,"_ he'd reasoned, _"if they defeat the people in that tournament so easily, they'll stop training and squander it all."_

She wasn't so certain that was the case, or that it would be a problem...

But she'd lived through seeing just how much more powerful enemies could become without warning. Eventually, someone like Kaguya, or even Madara, might arrive in the dimension. Those were beyond the level any normal tournament could present. She understood the lesson he wanted to impart.

It wasn't really her problem, all the same.

She stood inside the tournament hall all the same.

The disguise part made sense as well. If they knew it was her fighting them, it wouldn't have the same effect as a strange opponent appearing out of nowhere. She'd refused to even look at what disguise he picked out, though. Instead, she simply henge'd into...Ino.

Her fingers twined through strands of long blonde hair without even really realizing it. Every other time she'd been in a tournament like this Ino had been there. It made sense if Ino was this time, too.

They were in different blocks, but Krillin and Goku weren't so far that she couldn't watch them while she waited for her own battle. The way that Goku had moved, and how quickly he'd managed to send his opponent out of the ring (it looked like he'd barely touched him) spoke volumes for what Roshi had said. The children were geniuses. They learned and improved at a speed she could only envy.

It would be a waste if they failed to reach their potential, and a tragedy if their overconfidence ended in their death one day. If she had to beat them up once to stop them from killing themselves, then she would.

She squinted at Goku, as he stared down at his hand.

_If_ she could.

As the two chattered excitedly between each other, two other men approached them, wearing clothing similar to what Krillin had worn before the trip. The din of the tournament around her drowned out anything they said, but the body language between them and Krillin made the intent of it clear.

She'd never mistake that kind of behavior. Just by watching, she could hear what they were saying after all.

_"Are you having fun pretending to be a ninja?"_

_"Don't you think it's funny that she's trying to join the academy?"_

_"Just remember, you'll never be special, got it?"_

At some point, she wasn't sure when, she collected some of the straw that had piled up on the ground (presumably those came from the man dressed up as a scarecrow with straw stuffed up all of his sleeves and pants) and crossed the distance over to where the men and boys stood.

While she didn't remember when she'd _decided_ to approach them, she didn't hesitate to throw it at the two men once they both opened their mouths to laugh (at a joke that wasn't at all funny). The sharp strands hit straight on their mark, colliding with the back of both of their throats. Naturally, their laughter immediately turned into coughing fits.

"Wh-what the _hell_ -?" The taller one recovered first, and glared up at her with a level of killing intent that probably wouldn't have frightened one of Konoha's cats.

"Oh! I'm sorry." She waved her hand and smiled. "It's just that your two heads were so empty and wide open I mistook you for garbage bins."

The tall man spat the remainder straw out finally, and the other one tossed his to the ground, both taking a step toward her. "You think we look like _garbage_?"

In front of her, the startled younger boys, who hadn't yet said a word, moved defensively in front of her. Well. Goku moved defensively, Krillin's actions were somewhat more indecisive, as if he were contemplating hiding behind her instead.

She understood that feeling under the circumstances. Very much.

"Why else would I throw them?" She jutted her thumb over her shoulder. "I couldn't just leave them there when they came off that guy back there. Can't you tell how much they _smell_?"

Their gaze flickered in the direction she indicated. And then stayed there. A moment later, the two broke down into choking and gagging, stumbling backward and then running away. Presumably toward whatever kind of wash room the tournament had.

She sniffed (air only slightly tainted by the monstrously vile creature on the other side of the building). It didn't surprise her at all that they'd be unobservant and weak-willed enough to be so easily convinced the straw came from him, just because she'd said so. "Pathetic morons."

She'd always kind of suspected it did back when Ino had done the same for her...and now she knew she'd been right. Doing that felt pretty damn _good_. Even years after she'd so much as _seen_ those other girls.

"Wh...what...?" Krillin's voice cut through her thoughts, dazed and suspicious.

She was beginning to think the suspicious tone was just part of his voice.

"Don't put up with people putting you down." She turned her gaze down at them. Unsurprisingly, neither one of them showed any spark of recognition in their eyes. She might not have been her master, but she liked to think she was pretty decent at henge anyway. One of them seeing through it would have been a true shock. "Pathetic people like them don't even deserve to be in a place like this."

His expression hardened with a familiar kind of self doubt, before he turned his gaze after where the two men were hunched over at a far wall. "If people as strong as him don't belong here...then maybe I should forfeit entirely..."

" _What are you talking about_?" Goku spoke before she could say anything, fists clenched in front of him. "You can take him! Just go all out on him and you'll see!"

She would have said something as well, but one of the coordinators called out her number. For the moment, the two were engrossed in a pep talk with each other anyway. It was the perfect excuse to escape before either of them thought to get an identity out of her, or find a reason to suspect her of not being who she appeared to be.

It wasn't likely they would, under the circumstances, but a ninja didn't succeed by taking pointless risks.

Unless they happened to be named Naruto.

Her lips quirked into a tiny smile as she made her way to the stage.

Somehow, it was the first time she'd thought of him, or of home, and not felt a stab of pain.

(*)

He felt _amazing_!

Every once in a while, he felt a little worried or doubtful, and then Goku would send someone flying over his head and out of the ring. They were totally unstoppable! It was really, actually happening. His dream of never losing again, his dream of becoming famous and powerful, it didn't even take _one_ year, much less five.

He felt pretty _pumped_ , honestly. It was a little weird to think that just earlier that day he'd been so unsure and so close to dropping out. If it wasn't for Goku and that strange girl who appeared out of nowhere, he might...actually _have_ run away again. He wasn't particularly proud to think that.

He _did_ feel proud to be standing in the ring on the final fight to determine if he made it to the finals, though. Just a year ago, he almost couldn't bring himself to imagine himself standing _this_ far, and now...he was _confident_ he'd make it to the finals. It'd be him versus Goku squaring off in the ultimate test and showdown of rivals.

Sure, he'd ultimately beat Goku...

He ducked a clumsy swing of his opponent.

But Goku would put up a good fight!

Another swing missed him without him even really needing to move.

He'd look impressive! Master Roshi would congratulate him, Sakura would have to admit he succeeded at something she was too afraid to even try to do, and...

He landed a kick square in the middle of his opponent's large chest, sending the furry creature spiraling out of the ring.

He'd be the Tenkaichi champion!

" _Yeah_!"


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So...wherever she was, however she'd ended up here, maybe she'd somehow found another Team 7 to look after, at least until she could find her way back to her own.

She studied the small group of competitors in the room with her. Conspicuously missing were Goku and Krillin...but she'd heard them celebrating a bit earlier over making it into the tournament proper. Knowing them, they were probably taking part of the break to train or to find their old master.

Considering the rules of the competition, she wasn't all that surprised that the mass of filth made it into the tournament...but she also wasn't pleased by it, if only because this room was considerably smaller than the large hall from before. Ninja tried to keep their senses keen, but it required a small amount of chakra just to _numb_ her sense of smell with the hulking brute.

Just for that, she wanted to demand some kind of payment from the old man, but from what she could tell he didn't have much to offer her.

"Do you come here often?"

She turned toward the unfamiliar voice, and squinted up at the young man in front of her. Had she seen any of his fights in the preliminaries? She didn't think she had, but then she'd mostly only paid any attention to the two boys. It was very unlikely, from what little she'd seen, there would be any need for her to pay attention to anyone else.

Before she could respond, he blinked in surprise, and held up his hands, stuttering nervously. "W-w-wait, that came out wrong! I didn't mean to hit on you, you just look comfortable here! Don't worry about it, though, I-I'll just leave you be, no problem!"

Had she given him a particularly unpleasant look...? She didn't mean to-she hadn't even fully processed what he said yet.

"No, it's my first time here." She didn't see why she'd need to lie about that. A strange opponent who came out of nowhere was exactly what they needed.

"Ah...well...there you go." He rubbed at the back of his head and stared down at the ground.

She frowned. It hadn't occurred to her when he first spoke to her, but now she was beginning to think he really _was_ trying to flirt with her. The few who had made such attempts with her had been much bolder...but then again...she looked like Ino now. Ino always had boys trying to get her attention. Even when they were young she'd been beautiful, and as she'd grown up she'd only become moreso. She hadn't even thought of that when she'd chosen her old best friend as her disguise.

"I'm sorry, but I already have someone-"

"Uh! No!" He coughed loudly, and shook his head, face turning red. "That's what I mean! I wasn't trying to do that! I've got a girlfriend already! Really!"

He was shouting, and the other competitors were starting to stare. Honestly, he was just making it more difficult for both of them. She...sighed. "My name's...Ino." Some time in the future, her friend was going to really get on her for stealing her identity.

"Er..." He scratched at his cheek, still somewhat red-faced. "...Yamcha. Sorry. I was just trying to get to know some of the competitors while we wait, and you're..." He glanced toward the unpleasant figure on the far side of the room. "The one furthest from _him_..."

Despite the confusion and awkward introduction attempts, she found herself offering him a small smile. "Your introductions need work."

He gave a self-deprecating laugh, and shook his head. "Yeah...well..."

He trailed off suddenly, and his expression brightened. Not at her, but at something he looked at in the distance. Just as she turned to look at the center of attention, she heard him speak again. "Ah! Goku!"

(*)

Between the two of them, Goku introducing him to his old friends went better than him introducing Goku to his own...'friends'. It must have been nice to have such a large group of supporters and friends everywhere. For now...he had to start from scratch. His master, Goku...and that was all. Considering Sakura a 'friend' would be too generous, especially since she'd apparently already wandered off to do whatever it was she'd actually come along for in the first place.

Goku waved excitedly at-what was his name?-Yamcha, who'd apparently also made it to the tournament. "Yamcha! You made it too!"

The tall man scoffed. "Well, of course I did. You're not gonna get to try for first without getting a good fight out of me first."

"I can't wait!" Goku grinned in excitement, and then glanced over at the blonde who'd been standing next to Yamcha. "Oh, you were the one who threw things at Krillin's old friends, right?'

"I guess so." She glanced between them both. "Those weren't the kind of people I'd call friends, though."

He huffed and crossed his arms. "I _don't_ call them friends..."

"Good for you."

"Oh! We went and saw Bulma and Master Roshi!" Goku spoke over him before he could say anything in response to the cool-headed blonde. "Puar and Oolong were there, too!"

Yamcha seemed to relaxed somewhat, and placed a hand on his hip, turning his attention entirely to Goku. "So that's where you two guys went, huh? I figured it must have been something like that when I didn't see you two in here."

"Uh huh! We wanted to tell him right away that we made it into the tournament!"

"Well...I thought maybe we could surprise him..." He coughed. It was totally okay to lie to a perfect stranger to look cool. It wasn't like it mattered, since he probably wouldn't see much more of this fighter after today anyway.

"Please come up and pull a number for your position in the tournament!"

(*)

This wasn't the normal world, it might not even have been a _real_ world. She understood that.

She still didn't really understand why that world would have such _strange_ looking creatures wandering around everywhere in one city. There had been a minimal amount of strange looking people on the island that she'd spent the majority of her time on so far, but this tournament...almost half of the competitors looked like some form of animal instead of people. Or...at least people-shaped animals.

She found it more than a little bizarre. They didn't seem to be summons or creatures that could be contracted, and yet...they behaved with intelligence regular animals shouldn't have, and most certainly weren't treated as anything of the sort. Honestly, it was probably a small blessing that Goku had been paired against the one that had made it through to the quarter-finals instead of her. She might have stared too obviously if she'd been forced to fight it.

"Man..." Yamcha sighed, leaning against the doorway opposite to where she stood. By his tone, she wasn't sure if he was talking to himself or to her. "I can't believe there's two _women_ in this tournament..."

She stared over her shoulder at him as the tournament coordinator rattled off his opening announcements to the crowd. "Have you got something against women in a tournament?'

"Uh! No!" He shook his head quickly. "I just...don't like fighting women, is all." He trailed off again, then, but she almost made out the word 'terrifying' in his quiet mumbling.

"Without any further ado, let the tournament begin!" The blond coordinator on the stage sent his voice booming across the crowds, and turned back toward the door. "Contestants for battle one, please come out!"

"Krillin is the youngest competitor in this tournament, give him a hand, everyone!"

The small bald child patted his cheeks to psych himself up, and then ran out of the building, still looking much more nervous than confident.

"For our second competitor, the hulking monstrosity of strength, Bacterian! He boasts never having had a bath in his life, so give him...uh..." The man hesitated a moment, voice already muffled by hand or kerchief already held up to his nose in anticipation. "Warm welcome...!"

She stepped aside from the door just in time to avoid being shoved (and therefore touched) by the hairy brute as he walked through the door. She couldn't tell whether her company and future opponent managed to do the same. His expression was a sickened one, but simply standing so near to the brute without proper preparation would engender that reaction in anyone without need for contact.

Goku stood in the doorway next to them for only a moment before dashing forward.

"Hey-!" Yamcha called out in warning, but as she'd suspected, Goku had only wanted to get a view of the fight himself, and simply climbed up on of the walls separating the stage from the waiting competitors.

She was somewhat tempted to at least move around the primary screen so that she could see the battle, too. But it would be difficult to explain why she'd want to see that battle, of all of them. It wasn't likely to look pleasant if Krillin didn't knock the unpleasant creature out of the ring immediately.

"...I don't think that's legal..." Yamcha gave an exasperated sigh and shook his head. "Guess there's no point telling Goku that, though."

She glanced over at him, having little better to look at anyway. "Are you sure? If he doesn't want to be disqualified, he'd probably listen."

"Yeah...probably." He grimaced slightly, staring up at where Goku had managed to perch himself on a wall. "But I'm not sure I wanna spoil his fun. He really seems to like that kid."

"Yeah..." Her lips curled up into a slight smile despite herself, and she turned her attention to the figure of the small child as well. "They really do seem to have made good friends with each other."

"Yeah? So you can see it too." He nodded and smiled to himself. "That's good though. The kid could use all the friends he can get. It might not look like it now, but that kid...up until a little while ago, I guess he used to live all alone in the wilderness. My girlfriend...Bulma...was the first person he'd seen since his grandfather died when he was a really small kid."

She blinked, and turned her attention over to the other man. "He what?"

"Uh?" He startled a little, as if he'd thought somehow she wasn't listening, and looked over at her, expression as nervous as before. (She was beginning to wonder if the only person in the world not suspicious of her for some reason was Goku) "Y-Yeah...I guess, anyway. It's what Bulma told me."

So...he'd grown up all alone, too.

She glanced up at the small child, who waved and frantically shouted at his friend's battle.

Maybe he really _was_ like Naruto, not just because she missed her team. So...wherever she was, however she'd ended up here, maybe she'd somehow found another Team 7 to look after, at least until she could find her way back to her own.

She gave a soft huff.

Or maybe she was still being ridiculous after all.

Goku vaulted over the wall with a sudden cheer, and disappeared onto the platform, just before she heard the announcement of Krillin's victory. She crossed her arms and leaned her shoulder against the wall of the door, watching the shadows of Goku and Krillin dance across the semi-sheer screen in front of her.

At least she didn't need to worry about the two of them becoming bitter rivals.

"...So I guess it's time for our battle now, huh?" Yamcha sighed, and ruffled a hand through his hair. "Just so you know, I've got a girlfriend to impress so...I can't hold back out there."

She offered him a small smile as the two boys trotted back toward the waiting room. "If that's the case, maybe I won't hold back either."


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At least this would be a battle she could try to have a little fun with, given that she was expected to use some of her actual skill in it. She hadn't had a fight she'd had fun with in...longer than she wanted to remember.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the curious, the effects of Sakura's involvement in the world will be progressively more noticeable as time goes on. For the moment, she hasn't been around for very long, and the time she has been around has been very slow in terms of plot activity. It's my intent to avoid the Yuffie and Vincent syndrome even in situations where she has little direct impact though, so as to not waste anyone's time.

Adrenaline high or no, he kind of wanted to take the time in the waiting room to recover, or maybe take a shower just to get rid of anything real or imagined that had crawled onto him during the last fight.

He wanted to, but the next fight involved one of Goku's friends, and more importantly...the winner would be his next battle. Goku made a really good argument for scaling the tournament wall and watching the next battle the way Goku had watched his. He still kind of wanted to stay and rest up...but here he clung to the wall anyway.

"How strong is that friend of yours?" He frowned at the two combatants, who for the moment only walked to their positions. The girl didn't look built to fight at all: she was more like the kind of woman that their master had wanted than the crazy tough girl they ended up with. Comparing her to Yamcha, it didn't seem like the match would be very long.

"He's really strong!" Goku's grip slipped, and only quick footwork saved both of them from a collision with the ground and probable concussions. "When I fought him he was really fast and really strong."

"So..." Not as easy to overcome as his last opponent, probably. "What you mean is...I guess I'll be fighting him next."

Goku watched the two of them, thoughtful, as the announcer stepped out of the ring. "I guess so, yeah. You'll see for yourself how he fights in a second, though!"

He sighed, and frowned down at the competitors. If nothing else...at least he'd get to figure out any tricks Yamcha would use on him other than just being 'fast and strong'.

...Even though that _was_ pretty much his own entire thing.

(*)

The ring was unusually small for a competition like this one. When it came to chuunin exams, the room to move about was three times the size of the square, and the observers were far above and away from the action, where it would be safe from most genin or chuunin level attacks. The audience for this tournament were so near to the edge of the ring that usual martial arts would endanger them if she weren't careful. It didn't bode well for the overall strength and power of the world, if their strongest could safely do battle with so little precautions involved for the casual observers.

The arrangements were also more than close enough for the old man in the crowd to be closely observing and recording her movements to his memory. As much as she was showing off her skills for Goku and Krillin's sakes, she still needed to keep everything in a careful balance to conceal her full potential from anyone who might have been orchestrating things to figure that out. For whatever reason. It was an annoyance, but a necessary one.

Ah well. At least this would be a battle she could try to have a little fun with, given that she was expected to use some of her actual skill in it. She hadn't had a fight she'd had fun with in...longer than she wanted to remember.

As the match began, he sank into a low stance. She'd seen a few similar to his, so most likely his style relied on speed and adaptability, rather than strength. Which wasn't an unwise thing to do, generally.

She shifted her own stance slightly into something that would pass for defensive as well, and her lips curled up into a slight smile. If he wasn't about to blindly rush in and try to overpower her like the rest of her opponents in the preliminaries, it would just make the battle more fun.

For a moment, two, stillness fell across the ring, infecting the audience.

She watched his body tense a fraction of a second before he lunged forward with a low sweeping kick. The maneuver was clearly nothing more than testing her, feeling out an opponent he remained unfamiliar with. The nature of the action made it slow enough that even unprepared she might have been able to dodge it without much effort.

Instead she flipped to the side, and responded with a testing kick of her own.

"Guh-" In dodging her strike, his body twisted, off balance, and he rolled across the ring away from her. He recovered quickly from his tumble, catching himself just at the edge of the ring, and used it to support another forward lunge.

She ducked to the left, just out of reach of his fist. Instincts told her to attack...

She simply stood and watched him stumble a step in surprise. "Didn't you say you weren't going to hold back?"

He scoffed and threw her a suspicious look over his shoulder. "Didn't you say the same?"

She flipped backward to dodge a quick flurry of kicks. A waver in his gaze told her that the edge of the ring behind her had to be only a few steps. "Did I? Hm."

He lunged forward with determination, and she slipped by him close enough that the disturbed air from his punch stirred a few strands of her hair. Conveniently for her, it shuffled their positions around, which meant she wouldn't need to worry as much about dodging under close quarters again.

"Hey!" A female voice filtered out from the crowd. "Come on and get serious, Yamcha! Take her down already!"

His expression shifted to something like faint concern, and he squared himself off against her once more. Had he actually forgotten about his promise to show off in front of his girlfriend? Or was he just embarrassed not to land a hit on his opponent in front of her?

She glanced toward the crowd, curious over which one of the women might have been the one to shout out at him, and her gaze fell on the glimmering sunglasses of the old man. It was as impossible as ever to determine exactly where he was looking...but from his body language and his apparent calm amidst the excited crowd...he was watching just as closely and with as much calculation as she'd suspected he would.

"Sorry, but I just realized I have to finish this quickly." Her attention turned back to Yamcha when he spoke. At some point he'd assumed a slightly different stance, expression a mask of determination and focus. "Like I said, I've got a girlfriend to impress now."

She tensed even without quite realizing it, feet steadying herself in preparation for whatever he had ready as a finishing move. Would it be a ki attack of some sort? Could he risk using anything of any considerable power when there were so many bystanders so close by? Would he do something else completely new and bizarre to her home dimension?

" _Wolf Fang Fist_!" As he moved, the air around him whistled. It sounded a little bit like the distant howl of a wolf, which was most likely what created the name. Compared to his other attacks, this one was _much_ quicker, almost at the speed of a body-flicker.

That was about as much time as she had to think before he closed the distance between them. She ducked back, and then to the right. When a punch turned into a clever kick, she used his shoulder as a boost to flip behind him, and very quickly needed to dodge the lightning quick roundhouse punch that followed.

But that was enough. Any longer, and the frustration over failing to connect that she could see on his face would transform into anger and humiliation. She wasn't here to prove that the people in this world didn't measure up to shinobi training (or at least the training of the fifth hokage), she was competing just to teach Goku and Krillin an important lesson. As a favor.

Another of his strikes she knocked aside with her own arm, and then a final one struck her square in her stomach.

When the blow contacted, his eyes widened, and he gave a harsh gasp.

Despite her attempt to make the impact look convincing, it didn't fool him at all. Whoever this was, he could judge the fighting ability and skill of others well. Honestly, she found that kind of refreshing after months of dealing with the old pervert and two children who had no experience in real battle.

He'd already began to throw himself backward to escape her. He underestimated her speed.

And her strength.

Knuckles and a discharge of chakra contacted with his ribcage, and with a shout the tall fighter crashed into the ground at the base of the observer's wall.

"A-Amazing!" The coordinator shouted from somewhere behind her. "Ring out! After an exchange of blazing fast attacks, Ino Yamanaka is the winner of round two!"

From the ground, Yamcha stared up at her with wary confusion.

People in this world really _were_ determined to suspect her of something, weren't they?

(*)

"Awww no..." Goku huffed in disappoint. _Disappointment_! It didn't even seem like Goku was surprised. "Yamcha lost."

"Wh...wha..." He looked between the tournament ring-where someone was helping Yamcha back to his feet, and the two competitors were still just...watching each other for some reason-and Goku. "Did-Did you not _see_ that? How am I supposed to fight someone like _that_? He could barely even touch her!"

Goku frowned, and gave a little shrug before he dropped down to the ground again. "Just try your hardest when you fight her!"

"That's _not_ a useful strategy! _Hey! Goku!_ " He growled in annoyance, and dropped to the ground a moment afterward, jogging to catch up to Goku's wandering form.

"Man..." Goku scrubbed at his hair with short fingers. "She must be really strong to just beat Yamcha that easily. I thought I might have been able to fight him..."

" _I_ have to fight her nex-... _wait_." He glared over at his (ex-)friend. "You expected me to _lose_ to Yamcha?"

"What?" Goku looked up at him, expression startled. "...Oh, right. You two were gonna fight next anyway." He crossed his arms and frowned up at the sky, thoughtful. "Still...it's surprising someone could be so strong..."

He eyed the other boy a moment or two. "...Y'know, I'm gonna just let that slide." He shook his head, and then sighed. "Besides...whether I'd beat Yamcha or not, I guess it doesn't matter...how am I gonna handle her?"

"You won't."

He froze. That definitely wasn't Goku, because it came from behind him, so...

That Yamcha guy, apparently recovered from the attack that knocked him out of the ring, walked behind them.

He frowned up at the older man, immediately bristling in defensiveness. "...I don't want advice from a _loser_."

Yamcha stared down at him in a way that was...kind of menacing. "If you can't take advice from other people, you're _definitely_ not gonna win."

"Yamcha!" Goku cut in, eyes wide with either wonder or curiosity (it could be hard to tell with him sometimes) "How'd she beat you, huh? You were trying your hardest, right? Is she really that strong?"

"Aren't the losers supposed to join the observers?" The blonde leaned around Yamcha's arm and gave him a...surprisingly cute looking smile. For being such a good fighter.

Yamcha immediately jumped and scrambled away from her, face red and expression nervous. "H- _hey_! We're allowed linger and observe for a while!"

" _Outta my way_." Someone swept him aside with a sudden shove, and marched past him toward the ring. The other girl in the quarter finals, from the look of her...legs. Vaguely, he recalled her being set up in the third match. He hadn't really been paying attention though, with all of his worry over the first battle.

...Which...turned out to be much easier than he thought. Actually, with that in mind, and as impossible as the first battle had seemed until he actually did it (and remembered about his...handicap), maybe his second battle was the same thing, and would turn out to be just as easy once he got out there and faced her.

Yeah.

Maybe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ordinarily, I am the sort to prefer to gloss over battles or stylize them in writing in some form or fashion, because fighting is hard to write. This is something I will avoid doing in this fic, however, because Naruto and Dragonball are both combat-centric shounen, and skipping over fight scenes just ain't gonna be.


	12. Chapter 12

She didn't have any interest in watching the fight between two strangers. Ordinarily she would have watched the battle simply to see the threat they posed...but as of yet, she hadn't found anyone approaching a level where she'd need to worry about that sort of thing. Aside from that, she had a persona to keep up.

Which wasn't to say that she missed the mark on one of the competitor's heads like her own.

She didn't.

She dropped onto one of the seats in the waiting room, and stared at the ceiling in a manner as carefree as she could manage. What was that fighter's name? Namu? Could he actually possess the byakugou seal? If he did, then he was the first direct connection to her proper dimension that she'd found, excluding ki itself. If they worked together...well, they could have all the power in the world, without something to use it on, she still couldn't make the walls between dimensions open. Not just that, but would this dimension even open directly into hers, or would she need to go back to that middle dimension first?

Would it even be intact after the battle? No...no. It would be. She couldn't just _accept_ the possibility of not finding her way back. No matter what, that was home, those were her friends and family. After all these years, Sasuke had...

"Who are you really?"

Yamcha stood not far from her, watching her with that same suspicious look he'd been wearing almost since the end of their battle.

"Uh? Didn't you hear?" She pointed at herself. "I'm Ino Yamanaka. As beautiful as I am an amazing fighter."

"An amazing fighter that no one recognizes yet."

She glanced up at him with a frown. "I don't recognize you, but you're here."

For a long few moments, he simply watched her with an intense frown. Eventually, he gave a small huff and turned away from her toward where Goku and Krillin were standing in the room. "Who is it you're hiding your skill from, anyway? It's not like there's any better place to use it than this tournament."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

He scoffed and shook his head, before walking away.

(*)

No matter what he tried to do to pep himself up, he couldn't help still being nervous. Some of those moves were so fast in the ring that he had difficulty seeing them, and yet that Yamcha had only landed a _single_ hit on her.

And then she defeated him with a single punch of her own.

It was a little bit of an eerie reminder of Sakura and his own master's brief fight back on the island. This strange woman...she didn't possess the kind of strength that monster girl did, did she? He cast a furtive glance back toward her, where she seemed to be casually chatting with the person she'd just defeated.

...Nah, Yamcha had only been knocked a few feet away. And he wasn't a legendary master martial artist like his Master Roshi was. There was no way he'd need to worry about someone throwing punches that could send little mountains flying. Even though she was fast, _he_ was stronger than anyone he'd seen who didn't live in Kame house. And who knew how fast he could be if he really pushed himself, right?

Yeah...

He still felt pretty nervous.

"You're gonna do fine!" Goku chirped, dragging his attention back to the present. "Master Roshi's training really made us _strong._ I bet if Yamcha had taken the training too, he'd have won the fight instead."

"You...really think so?" He shifted uneasily, and rubbed at his head. Despite the saying he used to hear, it never seemed to give him any extra luck.

"Yeah! Definitely!" He nodded, hands gripped into fists. "When you go out there, you just gotta give it your all and I know you'll win! Then we'll get to fight in the finals!"

Yeah, well...maybe...

He puffed out his chest, summoning up more confidence. Yeah. _Yeah_. He was gonna win this tournament, right? He'd gone and mastered the training he'd dreamed of receiving, he was stronger than he ever imagined being...he could beat some strange _girl_!

"Are you ready?"

He jumped.

Oh. It was that Yamcha guy. He turned and frowned up at the tall man in annoyance. Seriously, who snuck up on some fighter in the middle of a tournament, anyway? "O-Of course I'm ready! You'll see what Muten Roshi's legendary training can do for people!"

"I can already tell it's made you strong." He nodded to Goku briefly, but then turned his gaze back again. It still kind of felt menacing for some reason. "But you can't let your guard down when you fight her. She's stronger than she looks."

"Well, yeah, she did beat you..."

"That's not what I mean." Yamcha frowned, closing his eyes for a moment, as if recalling a memory of some sort. "In our fight, she was holding back. It was...more like she was _playing_ with me than fighting me."

"Sh...She what...?"

Goku spoke before he could, eyes wide and face upturned. "She's really _that_ strong?"

Yamcha sighed, and shook his head. For a moment, a really cruel one, Krillin thought it meant Yamcha had been exaggerating. "I don't know what her game is, or why she was holding back...but at the end, I could tell. She didn't need to let me hit her, but she did. And when I did...it...didn't feel right."

Krillin squinted up at the taller man. "...What's that supposed to mean? Did you accidentally grab her-"

" _No!_ " His cheeks colored briefly, and he shook his head. "Not like that! I mean...it was like...I just happened to hit a wall while it was moving in the same direction. It wasn't like hitting a _person_ at all."

Blood must have drained from his face pretty rapidly, because he suddenly felt a wave of dizziness. "So...you mean...she dodged you and made it look like she didn't?"

Yamcha frowned, and looked over his shoulder at where the woman still sat. When she noticed their attention, she offered a small wave. Immediately, Krillin turned away, resisting the urge to shuffle a little closer to Goku and block out her line of sight.

"I don't know what it was." The martial artist sighed, and shook his head. "But if you've really been trained by Muten Roshi, then don't hold back. Bring your best, and take her out before she decides you're a threat."

...Shockingly, that latest pep talk did nothing for his 'pep'.

At all.

In the distance, he heard the crowd suddenly roar in excitement, and the announcer boomed out across the room. "That's it, folks! That's ten! Namu won the battle in _a single attack_! Truly, this tournament has been _amazing_ so far! Where will our contestants lead us next?"

Goku perked up immediately, trotting past them. "It's my turn! Finally!"

"Who was his opponent...?" Krillin frowned, and glanced around the room just in time to see a _huge dinosaur_ march by him. "Ahh... _geez_." He crossed his arms as he watched the two march out toward the ring. Those dinosaurs always had such _bad attitudes_. And they always had more than just hands and feet to fight with, it wasn't really fair at all. Honestly, in his opinion, the tenkaichi budokai really should have been just for humans.

But then...if it were, he supposed there'd just be another one even _bigger_ that had _all_ the fighters on Earth.

Well, at least _he_ didn't have to fight Gilan. Dinosaur breath always smelled like really bad fish.

(*)

She felt better about the fact that she actually wanted to see Goku's fight (and had made no effort to watch the other one) because in this case the rest of the (still present) contestants also did. Most likely in _their_ case it was interest in Gilan, the monstrous creature he was matched against...but that worked just fine. She didn't need to elaborate on her reasons if they weren't on theirs.

Gilan dwarfed Goku by a considerable amount. Not only in height, but in width as well. Eight of Goku would probably have fit inside the beast, and as light and clear as Goku's voice was, Gilan's boomed like distant explosions.

She doubted Goku would have very much trouble with him, considering his bulky form and the limited range of movement each contestant was given.

...And so naturally, the battled opened with Gilan punching the little idiot right into a nearby wall.

She sighed, and directed a pointed look at the old man in the crowd. If he'd trained his boys in _martial arts_ , Goku would have known better than to leave himself so open and unguarded. As it was, the tasks had made Goku durable enough to take that kind of a hit without injury...but if the creature had smacked him in any _other_ way, Goku would have immediately lost to a far inferior opponent.

The old man looked up into the sky, rather than looking properly chastised.

"That's the Goku I remember!" Yamcha cheered. For some reason, Krillin had convinced him to climb on top of the wall as Goku did before, rather than simply stand between the entrance of the ring and the tournament screen. For some reason, Yamcha had apparently agreed to do it.

Probably, Team Seven would have fit right in.

Despite the lack of any training received from Master Roshi, it was clear Goku must have had _some_ training, because his counter attacks were well-calculated and precise. Not only did he overpower and out-speed the behemoth, but his strikes didn't waste energy, and worked well to keep Gilan dazed and off-balance.

Right up until he threw Gilan out of the ring, and _into the air_. For a moment, she thought he might have meant to throw in an arc, to keep his opponent from touching anything but the ground outside the ring...but then the height of the throw went out of control.

She sighed, and muttered under her breath as she watched the young boy stare up at his airborne opponent. "Goku, you _idiot_..."

Just what did he think wings were _for_?

"Wait...just leaving the ring isn't enough?" Krillin frowned over at his partner in ridiculousness, who had slung a leg over the edge just to keep from sliding off.

"No...you have to touch the ground. Or...I guess anything really solid outside of the ring. Otherwise, if you just jumped really high, you might be considered a ring out because you're not in the range of the ring. Or you could jump on something above the ring, and count as 'in' as long as you were above it."

"Oh...I guess that makes sense..."

She was about to make a comment about prospective competitors researching...or at least _listening_ to the rules, but before she could, Gilan spat something at Goku. In form it wasn't particularly familiar, but the function of it was obvious the moment it began to move in an unnatural spiral.

"Goku, _move_!" She hadn't meant to say anything-this wasn't the chuunin exams, the two boys weren't on her team, and she wasn't here to ensure they won. The shout simply happened by instinct.

"Wha-" The young boy looked over at her in confusion, as if he didn't understand the command (or perhaps simply hadn't expected it from her), and the strange substance snapped shut around him like an over-sized rope.

"Oh no! _Dammit_!" Krillin glared down at her from where he perched on the wall. "Stupid! You distracted him!"

The beast gave a rumbling laugh. "Thanks for the distraction. Because of you, now I get to _win_."

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just as a note in case it comes up-I have not forgotten that Krillin has no nose and therefore could not smell anything from the dinosaur. (Except when he does, randomly, have an invisible nose to bleed out of or to do something comic with it)
> 
> Krillin, however, forgets all the time.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You've got an awful lot of concern over what happens to Goku for someone who he's never seen before."

The giant creature threw his head back and laughed, arms spread out wide. "I win!"

" _Goku!_ " Krillin shouted over the din of the crowd, as the child in the ring struggled without success to break the strange yellowish substance that entrapped his arms and legs.

"Now, you're no different from a puppet without strings." The creature chuckled as he reared up an arm over his head. "And I'm gonna have fun before I win!"

She grit her teeth in frustration. Standing on the sidelines and watching other people fight was always difficult, even when it happened in situations like this. If she could just touch the film for a moment, she could crumble it away. It wasn't as if Gilan's strategy wasn't _clever_ , but...

It didn't help that she'd contributed to his loss. It wouldn't teach Goku the same lesson if he lost because his concentration broke in the middle of the battle.

As the lizard batted Goku back and forth across the ring, she took a step forward, and then another.

" _You stupid boy_..." If he kept up...

A hand touched her arm. "Don't." That woman, the one who'd lost just the round before, had appeared from wherever she'd been hiding to watch the battle before. "If you walk out, you'll be disqualified. He has to finish it before he kills Goku, or he'll be disqualified too."

She...knew that. She knew both of those things.

Still...she _'_ d already gotten involved on accident. She should have been able to do _something_ to fix what she'd influenced. But if they acknowledged that she'd been involved at all, most likely he'd be disqualified anyway.

The monster lifted Goku up above his head, looking off into the distance. "Now...time to throw you out like the trash!"

" _H-hey!_ Can't we settle this _fairly_? _Hey_!" Goku kicked in frustration, struggling in vain to slip free of the strange fluid holding him still.

"It looks like it's over, folks! There's nothing Goku can do now but be thrown out of the ring! It seems the battle is all but decided!"

She growled in frustration and punched the decorative tournament wall, cracking the engraving there.

It was enough. The tremor passed through the wall, down the stairs, and then rumbled across the ring. The vibration was slight, so small that the din of the crowd drowned out the sound completely. It didn't need to be much, though. In Gilan's unbalanced state, just as he pitched forward to throw Goku, the shift in the ground knocked him off balance.

"Ga-ah-y _ah_!" The unstable beast tumbled backward, and Goku fell out of his hand, bouncing and rolling across the ring with shouts of alarm.

" _Unbelievable!_ " The coordinator placed a hand to his cheek in shock. "At the last, critical moment, Gilan overbalanced himself and _tripped_! But will this opportunity be enough to turn it around? For the moment, Goku is still trapped in the unbreakable gum!"

Said child had rolled just to the edge if the ring and, fortunately, stopped. As the man said, though, the action had only saved him moments more. Already, the enraged looking lizard began to climb to his feet again, growling in anger. "I hope you enjoyed that trip, because _it won't happen again_!"

" _Goku_!" Krillin shouted again, looking more frantic than she'd ever seen him before. " _Come on_ , Goku! You can do it!"

"- _Yeah_!" Yamcha called out, hand cupped over his mouth. "Come on, Goku! Show this guy what a student of Muten Roshi can do!"

The lizard paused, looking up at Yamcha then with a look of shock. "Muten _Roshi_...?"

" _That's right_!" She shouted, holding up her fist over her head. "Show him how strong you are!"

In the crowd somewhere, she heard a female shout for Goku as well, and then others in that same section of the crowd cheered him on. The lizard, apparently still shocked by the revelation Goku's teacher looked slowly between the competitors section and Goku on the ground, expression a mask of confusion and astonishment.

Goku grit his teeth, clenched his fist and shouted, bolstered by the encouragement. The sight of his renewed struggling snapped Gilan out of his stupor, and he started toward Goku once more, forming a scaled fist. "What a disappointment of a student! This time I'm going to send you out the old fashioned way!"

"N-Na... _Nnnot..."_ Goku's expression screwed up in concentration and effort, face as red as the gi his old deadbeat of a master had gotten him, and with an almighty scream, his arms and legs snapped outward, bursting through the confining gum with explosive force. " _Not yet_!"

The crowd roared in excitement, and it was possible she might have shouted as well, as Gilan stumbled backward in shock. "That's- _that's not possible!_ "

The small kid pushed himself up to his feet and brushed the last of the debris from the gum off his clothes, before frowning up at Gilan. "That was a good trick...but I'm not gonna fall for it again! Now _time for my counter attack_!"

He sprinted forward with a burst of speed, and leaped into the air.

Gilan lunged backward, but much as Yamcha had, underestimated Goku's strength. His kick failed to land square in the middle of the lizard as he'd clearly meant for it to be, but it still just managed to contact with one of Gilan's over-sized shoulders.

The giant creature gave a pained shout, and spiraled out of the ring, body lifted through the air from the force of Goku's kick. This time, when his wings spread out to catch himself, the tip of one of them grazed across the grass of the ring.

" _Ring out_! That's a ring out!" The coordinator shouted the announcement with surprising speed. While it seemed like the man primarily spent his time stating the obvious, he must have also been watching the fight much more closely than it seemed. "What a surprising comeback! That's the power of the god of martial arts, Muten Roshi's teaching, folks!"

...' _god_ '?

(*)

He huffed as he dropped to the ground. For a little bit there, he'd thought that girl had intentionally sabotaged Goku's battle just to get rid of him. Which wouldn't have been a bad plan, but Goku was _his_ (pretty much only) friend. He couldn't approve of that when they were supposed to both be in the finals of the tournament.

Well, that, and if she were going to use some kind of a low down dirty trick like that, there was no telling what she'd do in _their_ fight. She was scary enough if she didn't cheat. Doing something to eliminate him without even giving him a fair chance would just be...

Ugh. He didn't like that idea at all.

But...Goku hadn't been defeated, and there for a bit he was pretty sure she actually _cheered_ for him. Maybe she just didn't want to fight a dinosaur, either. Well...

He refused to allow that to matter. Because no matter what, she wouldn't be fighting either of them. He'd be advancing, because that was his plan. When he was in the preliminaries he was sure of it, and he made it through his first real fight in the tournament pretty easily. He'd make it through his second one, too...and then it'd be him against Goku.

He could definitely do it.

Yeah.

He spared the girl a nervous glance as he walked past her toward the ring, trotting out for the impromptu interview. Despite the fact that their fight would be the next one, she didn't seem concerned with him at all. She just kept watching Goku.

Geez...

"That was a real close one this time, Goku..."

"Yeah, I know! That stuff was _really_ sticky and thick! It took all of my effort to break through it."

The man that had called him out there beamed down at the two of them. "You're both so young but so strong! You're only thirteen, aren't you, Krillin? And what about you, Goku? How old are you?"

He leaned down slightly, and held the microphone out, expectant.

Goku...squinted up at it in confusion, and reached up to poke it with his finger. Naturally, the man deftly dodged the attempt, which...apparently only made Goku more confused. Which... _why_? What the heck was even confusing about a _microphone_?

"Uh...what are you trying to give to me...?"

" _A-are you kidding me_?"

(*)

The two of them really were strong. She hadn't seen Krillin's battle, but the speed in which he'd dispatched his opponent was enough to indicate it. If his skill level was anything like Goku's, though, they both were incredibly wanting in _style_. Brute force wouldn't always win their battles. If he hadn't gotten a second chance with Gilan once he was captured, he would have already been knocked out of the tournament, despite all of the strength and speed he'd built up in his months of training under his... _divine_ master.

God of martial arts. That old man?

It reminded her of the way they spoke of the sannin, or of Hashirama Senju and the Sage of Six Paths. But...those people (at least those she'd _met_ of them) lived up to that veneration. They may have been human, but their power was just as terrible and amazing as the legends indicated.

That old man...he shouldn't have had any kind of reputation like that at all.

"You get pretty invested in other competitors' battles, huh?"

She looked over her shoulder in surprise, the voice jarring her out of her thoughts.

Ah, it was Yamcha again. Digging again, for some reason. "Well, it was deciding who I'd be fighting. Smart participants keep track of their competition."

"So you really thought Goku was weaker than Gilan?" He squinted at her, suspicious.

"No." She turned toward him, finally, placing a hand on her hip. "I like a challenge. You weren't one, but I'm sure someone in here is."

"Yeah?" He crossed his arms, radiating challenge. "So if you wanted to fight him, what about when you almost disqualified yourself when he was in danger?"

..She crossed her arms as well, mimicking his stance, and glared back up at him. She honestly wasn't certain what he thought he was digging up...but he was bumbling his way toward the only thing she actually needed to hide for the moment. Or...catching her own mistakes on the matter, anyway. "What the hell are you trying to _get at_?"

He frowned, and then shook his head, letting his arms fall to his sides. "...I don't know. But you know what I _do_ know? You've got an _awful_ lot of concern over what happens to Goku for someone who he's never seen before."

She squinted up at him. "Yeah? Do you keep track of every person he's ever met?"

"Nah..." He shook his head, and then turned away from her, moving toward where Goku was returning from the stadium again. "But he hasn't called you his _friend_ yet."

"Hey!" Goku waved over at her from the entrance. "They're calling you up now, it's time for your next round!"

He tugged at Yamcha's wrist once the taller man made it in range, and sprinted off to his favorite vantage point.

So then. Rounds went much more quickly in this tournament than the Chuunin Exams ever had. As much as she knew it was for the best, she still couldn't help a small twinge of regret over the matter. It would have been nice to give the two boys a chance to square off. Considering they weren't rivals.

Then again...maybe it was best not to give them any ideas after all.

"He's really interested in you, huh?"

"-Eh?" She blinked, and looked over at the other female competitor. When had the woman made it over to her?

"That Yamcha! You know, when I tried talking to him, he didn't say a word. He just ran away." She huffed, and pursed her lips. "Maybe I should have tried beating him up a little."

She frowned, and shook her head.

Somehow...she doubted very much that his insistent interrogation had anything to do with what the woman was thinking at all.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "She isn't here. She must be looking for her cloud."
> 
> "Her what?"

He still couldn't figure out what, but he knew there was _something_ off about the girl. Things didn't line up, like why was she holding back against him? For most people, the Tenkaichi Budokai was the perfect place to show off the things they'd learned and the techniques they'd developed. Even if she didn't _need_ to use them, why waste an entire round doing nothing? And why did she allow him to hit her even once?

One didn't survive around murderers and thieves in the wilderness without developing a healthy sense for when things were wrong.

"Are you sure you've never seen her before?" He glanced over at Goku, who didn't even look tired after his fight. Sometimes he wondered if the kid was made out of something invincible.

Goku frowned and shook his head. "She's...kind of familiar...but I don't remember ever seeing anyone like that as strong as her."

"Yeah...neither have I."

His grip slipped, and the tournament coordinator glanced up at where the two of them were perched with a bewildered look.

...He kind of liked the elevated view of the ring, though, so he wasn't about to move. Even if the guy who stood on the sidelines and told the crowd things that they'd already seen was judging him. As long as he didn't look like a _complete_ idiot where Bulma could see...

He glanced over to the section of the crowd where she'd set up camp, and it looked as if his friends (and an old man who...must have been _Muten Roshi_ ) were intently watching the ring, not the wall he and Goku happened to be hanging off of.

"I wonder where Sakura went..." Goku huffed and frowned. "She said she wanted to see us fight."

"Who?" His gaze flickered toward Goku as the two competitors squared off against each other.

"She's the girl that Master Roshi made us bring to Kame House before he'd train us. She's really strong, but she didn't want to join the tournament."

He frowned. "...And she's here?"

Goku shaded his eyes briefly, and shook his head. "She isn't here. She must be looking for her cloud."

"Her what?"

Before Goku could respond, Krillin slammed into the wall they were holding onto.

(*)

She expected Goku and Krillin to be the biggest challenges in the tournament. Perhaps they wouldn't approach the level she was used to fighting in the Shinobi war, but she still expected them to be beyond anything the rest of the tournament could offer. Perhaps that was pride or bias interfering, because she knew them, and a part of her refused to shake the feeling that they were just like Team 7.

She wasn't wrong.

Despite his nervous expression (or perhaps partly because of it) once the coordinator announced the start of the battle, Krillin shot toward her with a burst of speed she'd never seen from him before. She only barely twisted out of the way before he would have contacted with his leading punch.

He recovered quickly, and she had to flip backward just to avoid the sweeping kick that he followed with. He _was_ fast. For such a little amount of time training, she was impressed. Inane as it was, the weighted training _did_ increase strength and speed considerably. Even the one she'd been forced to wear for him to teach her about ki had noticeably improved her base agility and speed.

Not by all that _much_ , but if she'd been untrained like the boys, it might have done much more. As it clearly had. She'd need to experiment with that sort of thing when she did more extensive training, later.

He flipped into the air with a powerful kick and a shout. Her previous dodge had moved her too near to the corner of the ring to safely move out of the way. If she didn't know better, she'd think he might have purposefully gotten her to dodge her way into a corner.

He hand shot up and caught his ankle, and the other followed through with a solid punch into his stomach.

He smacked into the far competitors wall, just barely within the range of the ring. Perhaps she could have held back a little more with her counter attack. But...could it be he'd been paying enough attention to her fight to realize she was unfamiliar with such a small ring, and intended to trick her into ring-out?

"That was good." She walked back to the center of the ring as the small boy staggered back to his feet. "But don't underestimate your opponent's strength. There's more to defense than dodging."

He coughed, and stumbled to his feet, mumbling something under his breath.

"You can do it, Krillin!" Goku shouted from his perch.

She stood, hands on her hips, as Krillin charged her again. The trouble with his attacks were a lack of coordination. He was smart, she knew that. He also observed pretty damn well if he could tell from just one fight that she wasn't familiar with the ring. All of his attacks kept boiling down to charging her as fast as he could and hitting as hard as he could.

Unfortunately, there was more to battle than those two things, unless that speed and strength far overwhelmed the opponent.

She side-stepped his charge, and lashed out with a kick of her own, sending him spiraling through the air with an alarmed grunt. The small figure impacted the ring a few feet away and slid until the edge of the ring. He'd probably have gone right over, but he managed to stop himself by latching onto the side of the ring in a method similar to the way he'd been hanging off of the wall until then.

"I'm not...gonna lose that easily...!" He shoved himself up from the ground and launched through the air again, rolling in a ball as he went to increase his speed.

As she ducked, she felt his hand land on her shoulder. A moment later, his foot contacted with her back, and sent her flying forward, right off her feet.

"Damn-" The impact had sent her spinning, feet over her head as she flew through the air. She...didn't really want to have to risk showing her ability if she didn't need to, but if she didn't stop herself, the impact would probably send her right off of the ring.

She slapped her hand up against the bottom of the ring, and summoned chakra, bringing her slide to a sharp stop. The rest of the momentum in her body easily flipped her upright again.

"Yeah! Krillin! You've almost got her!" Goku waved in the air, expression excited and cheerful.

Krillin grit his teeth and shifted his stance again. "I'm...gonna _win..._!"

He shouldn't have decided to charge her again while she stood so close to the edge.

When she stood still as he charged at her, he _really_ should have stopped. But then, the frantic look in his eyes told her that he wasn't thinking clearly anymore. Which would have been solved if he'd been properly trained, as well. Getting over-excited and assuming victory was one of the best ways to die.

She leapt into the air as he charged, and flipped, using his shoulder for support as he'd used hers. As he skidded to a halt she brought up her leg to kick him square in the back. Just in time, he twisted and held up his arm to block her strike.

"Krillin, _no_ -!"

Just as Goku had realized, Krillin didn't possess nearly enough strength to stop her.

Her kick impacted with his arm, lifted him from the ground, and then sent him flying into the crowd.

" _That's it folks_! With a _powerful_ kick, Ino Yamanaka has secured herself a place in the finals! What an amazing match! Truly, we'll be looking forward to an epic final battle of the tournament!"

As she settled back to her regular stance, she glanced over her shoulder at the old man. If he'd taught Krillin better, he might not have _won..._ but he'd have had a much better chance. Really. The tournament wasn't teaching them there were stronger people in the world, it was showing her _just how much more teaching the boys needed_.

As Krillin stumbled back into the stadium in a daze, she sighed. "You should have listened to me when I told you. Don't just expect your opponent to dodge. They're also going to counter attack."

He glared up at her, expression...much more sulky than sour, and then marched back to the waiting room.

She shook her head slightly, and glanced back toward where the old man stood in the audience a final time, before wandering back toward the waiting room.

And the suspicious expression of that _damn Yamcha_.

(*)

His face hurt. Which was weird, because he'd only smacked his face into one or two things during the battle. His back and arms took most of the punishment. That...and his ego, anyway, That hurt pretty bad. Maybe the worst.

He flopped down on one of the benches in the waiting room and stared down at the floor. Even if he made it to the semifinals...he didn't make it to the finals. Somehow, at some point, his perspective shifted from excitement that he'd even make it into the preliminaries into disappointment he didn't get all the way.

But...

No, it wasn't that easy to just change his perspective and go back to the first. Especially when he lost so quickly. It felt like he'd barely been able to put up a fight. It was so bad she actually kept _giving him tips_! Ugh!

"Hey..." Goku frowned, standing near to him. "You're not hurt, are you?"

He frowned, and shook his head. The gesture made him wince a little...but it wasn't so bad. "No...I guess I'm fine."

"You need to train more."

He stiffened immediately, and glared up at the woman. He'd had _just about enough_ of her trying to be his teacher. He didn't need anyone else, he had Muten Roshi already! "Why do you even _care_? You already won the match. Just leave me alone, you weirdo."

"Well...it makes sense if she cares." Yamcha, that was his name, appeared behind her, and stared down at her. "You care because you know them, right?"

A look of annoyance passed across her face, and she looked over her shoulder. "Now what are you talking about?"

"You're the one who's been training with them, right?" He crossed his arms. "The one who fell out of the sky. That's why I've never heard of you before. You're from some...other place."

"Uh..." Krillin squinted up at the two older adults. "That's _insane_."

"Yeah...Yamcha, Sakura doesn't look anything like her." Goku spoke behind him with a tone of confusion. "They aren't even the same height."

Yamcha blinked in surprise. "What?"

He shook his head. "Yeah. _Geez_. Where'd you get that idea from, anyway? Sakura's totally different. She's all weird and looks like a boy. She's not..." pretty, like the girl who had just kicked him back and forth around the ring and happened to be giving him a weird look right at that moment. "She's...ugly and _weird looking_ , and she has short hair."

The girl, Ino, smacked him upside the head without any kind of warning at all.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Because...there's a friend of mine, He likes to say that children are our future. They're much more important than we are."
> 
> Goku skidded across the ring, and Namu swept after him, longer legs and arms used to their fullest advantage against his compact form.
> 
> "In reality...they're our king."

She was beginning to feel rather frustrated over the elusiveness of Namu, the final competitor in the tournament, and the one bearing something that looked like a very similar variant of the byakugou seal on his forehead. His might have been a circle, rather than a diamond, but this was an entirely separate dimension, and somehow involved Kaguya, a creature far older than the origin of the seal.

She hadn't had the opportunity to ask him, however, as either one of the boys or herself (or both) had been in a battle ever since she'd noticed the mark on his forehead. Once again, only a few minutes after her battle with Krillin, Goku trotted out onto the stage, this time with the very person she'd wanted to question.

She could only hope that he would linger like Ranfan and Yamcha had after their respective losses. (In fact, if he lingered and Yamcha left, she'd be perfectly fine with that, too)

"This is it, folks! This is the last match to determine who will be in the finals and compete for five hundred thousand zenni! The tournament has all but reached its climax! What an exciting day we've had so far! I can't wait!"

Maybe she'd have been more interested in five hundred thousand if she understood what five hundred thousand was _worth_. It had cost a few hundred (borrowed) zenni for her new outfit, but that wasn't much of a yardstick, nor did it compare to the money she was used to.

Maybe she'd have cared more if she actually intended to stay any longer than absolutely and strictly necessary, too. In the end, if she ended up winning (as was most likely), she'd just give it to Roshi to use as he wanted. She could hardly give it to the boys, after all. Even if they found out after, that would completely defeat the purpose of the lesson.

The two bowed to each other as the fight began.

"So..." Yamcha drawled next to her. "The thing is...I know my guess is wrong, but that doesn't change that you're more invested in these two kids than you should be."

"Am I?" She glanced up at him. "Because...there's a friend of mine, He likes to say that children are our future. They're much more important than we are."

Goku skidded across the ring, and Namu swept after him, longer legs and arms used to their fullest advantage against his compact form.

"In reality...they're our _king_."

(*)

Goku was really struggling against this Namu guy. "Come on, Goku! You said you'd get me revenge!"

The two spun through the air, bouncing off of each other like they were kicking into walls instead of people, sliding across one side of the stadium and then back to the other. Namu would jump over Goku's kicks, and then Goku would duck under his punches. Honestly, it was really impressive and a little mesmerizing.

But Goku kept ending up on the edge of the ring. It wasn't good for his health to keep seeing his friend knocked so close.

It also wasn't good for his health when one of Goku's backhanded punches knocked the big man _almost into his face_. The man's feet landed only a few inches away...and they were _really big feet_. Sheesh. If he didn't know Goku pretty well already, he'd suspect that Goku had actually batted the man toward him on _purpose_ because he didn't approve of his commentary.

But that probably wasn't true.

The man's counter attacking chop sent Goku spiraling away and then onto his face. It looked like it hurt quite a bit.

The man charged at Goku's crumpled form with sudden desperation, and lifted his leg as if he were about to soccer ball kick him right out of the ring.

"Hey, Goku, _look out_!"

(*)

Krillin shouted just as Namu swung his leg in toward Goku's crumpled form, but the shout wasn't really necessary. From where she stood at a lower altitude, she had already seen him pushing himself up, bouncing away to the left and leaving the warrior unbalanced.

She could see his little grin from where she stood, and correctly guessed his next move: springing up and kicking the taller man in the shoulder.

It was a good fight, really. Although she expected Krillin to have slightly more skill, Goku was resourceful...and almost as unpredictable as Naruto himself when it came to unconventional attacks. But then...it wasn't completely fair to Krillin to compare their two battles. Krillin's own nervousness had been his downfall, if he'd kept up his calculated attacks like he'd started out, their battle would have looked much closer to this.

Namu's spin kick landed squarely in the back of Goku's head, and sent the small child bouncing right off of the tournament wall.

She winced slightly at the sound of the impact.

The small boy stumbled, dazed, and held his head. She couldn't see his face, but his words were slightly slurred as he spoke. "Aauuw...that... _hurt."_

She didn't catch the warrior's response, but his expression looked as unflappably serious as ever.

Once again, the boy dashed at the man. Unlike Krillin's many suicide strikes, just before he reached the man, it became a slide kick, and only a well-timed forward tumble saved the man from a very uncontrolled tumble.

When Goku pushed himself up to his feet...he slipped.

Namu's kick lifted him right off the ground and sent him flying toward the edge of the ring. The young boy bounced and rolled several feet, and sprawled out on the ground, expression dazed.

The man bowed slightly, hands clasped in front of him, as if greeting him once again. Or, perhaps, saying farewell. Goku pushed himself up to his feet again, and Namu charged at him, swift-footed as ever. Goku, in response, charged right back at him.

The small boy jumped through the air, arms outstretched, intent to grapple with the man and most likely flip him over with his momentum. Namu's own hands lifted up as well.

" _Don't_ -!"

Dark hands clasped over Goku's pale wrists, and the tall man spun in a circle, stealing Goku's momentum for himself...and then Goku's hands grasped onto Namu's as well. The attempt to throw him out of the ring ultimately resulted in the tall man stumbling a few steps forward in confusion.

The small boy tucked his body inward, curled up, and then used the leverage of the man's arms to kick him in the rib cage and flip the both of them onto the ground.

For a few moments, both fighters lay on the ground, regaining their breath...and probably their respective senses of balance. She sighed, and leaned against the side of the ring entrance...where she must have moved at some point. Honestly. That boy was beginning to worry her.

"Hurry up and finish him off, Goku!" Krillin shouted from the sidelines.

The boy stumbled up to his feet again and resumed his odd little battle stance. The man shook his head slightly as he stood, and then...didn't turn back, hands clasped before him, head bowed, lips forming something she couldn't hear or read.

Goku leaped into the air again, and - nearly faster than sight - the man's leg struck him in the middle of the stomach.

The small boy collapsed onto the ring, clutching his stomach and rolled in to a ball.

This time, the older man showed no hesitation in his movements. His movement was swift and smooth. A step, and he kicked out once again. The instant before the kick contacted, small arms came up, caught it, and softened the blow.

It was barely enough to keep him on the outer corner of the ring. Whoever this person was...it seemed increasingly likely he did possess the seal. Regardless of Goku's tenacity, the better fighter was clear. Goku would need to use all of his strength and cunning to overcome Namu.

The man pounced, a powerful punch angled down at Goku's head, and the small child lifted his arms, crossing them over his head and redirecting the impact.

As the shock of the blow passed through his compact body, his foot slipped.

A moment later, he vanished from view.

For a few more moments, silence settled on the stadium, and she stared at the spot that Goku had been standing, waiting for him to reappear, or to have been an illusion all along, as...wouldn't have been unusual at all for ninja.

" _Oh!_ That's it! _It's decided_! The battle was valiantly fought, and _intense,_ but the victor of battle six is _Namu_!"

She sighed softly, and turned back toward the waiting room, wandering away from the ring.

Apparently, it wasn't really necessary to have her in the tournament at all. The boys were strong, fast, and durable. They... _really_ weren't ready for real battle yet. Maybe when they got back...if she didn't find her way home during this stay, if two byakugou seals weren't enough, she'd see if she could find those two a real teacher.

God of martial arts, the coordinator had called him? Maybe the damn old man should have _taught his students martial arts_.

She huffed, arms loosely crossed, and settled down in the nearby bench.

Goku, Krillin, and Yamcha all shuffled into the room with dejected looks on their faces. As if the other two had lost with him. It...hurt a little that she couldn't just say she would win it for them.

She frowned, and glanced away at the far door of the tournament. The one she would just walk through now, if she didn't need to speak to Namu still. "...Don't be so depressed. You're the third, fourth, and sixth strongest people in the world."

She couldn't see their faces, and refused to actually look.

"But...I wanna be the best..." Goku sighed.

"Besides..." Krillin huffed. "It's not like you two were _stronger_ , if only the ring were bigger-"

She glared at the both of them with enough intensity that Krillin immediately silenced, and Goku made no other sound. " _It's not all about strength_!"

She stood and advanced on the three, pointing at each in turn. " _You_ , Krillin. You were careless! You gave up on strategy and kept trying to overpower me with brute force instead of using your head! You, Goku! You underestimated Namu! He'd been trying to throw you out of the ring from the beginning, and you kept giving him chances! And _you_." She settled a cool glare on the tallest, who seemed...put upon to be included. Well, if he were so put upon, he shouldn't have been contributing to Goku and Krillin's depression. "You underestimated me. This is the world tournament. Don't hold back against an opponent you've never seen before. If you led with your technique, you would have been able to catch me off guard, but instead you let me adapt to your style first!"

She shook her head and propped her hands on her hips, feeling...kind of good, actually. She felt a little like one of her teachers. "None of you deserve to win the tournament yet. Not until you take your training and your opponents _seriously_." Again, she frowned at Krillin, who seemed to just be...sulking again. "Go ahead. Keep making excuses for why you lost. Then, when you come back here, I'll beat you again, because you _won't_ have improved."

She turned on her heel and marched back to her bench, crossing her arms and her legs.

Because she couldn't just tell them she'd win as their friend or fellow student, could she?

If she couldn't do that, at least she could teach them something important instead. Because, apparently, Roshi damn well wasn't going to do it.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the three of them look at each other in confusion, and then shrug. After a moment, Yamcha sighed, and then settled a hand on Goku's shoulder with a small smile. "You wanna go eat? Bulma said she's paying."

His eyes widened and he gave a sudden cheer, all of the previous depression apparently gone in the face of food. " _Alright_! I'm _super_ hungry now, too!"

She watched the three disappear through the far door without another glance back toward her, and then turned her gaze up toward the ceiling of the roof of the building.

Maybe they _were_ like Team Seven...

But they weren't _her_ Team Seven.

Honestly, she didn't belong here at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man. You guys have no idea how disappointed I was when I realized that I couldn't have the monkey fight, or even the Goku/Sakura showdown. I was super jazzed to write it, and then I just cut out ten chapters of Dragonball.
> 
> The trouble, ultimately, is how strongly Goku relied on his tail to defeat Namu. The tail that he didn't need to regrow in Gilan's fight, because he broke out of the gum before regrowing it.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> His fellows at the table sans one looked up at him, and then pointedly stared at Goku. The boy, busy scarfing down food out of a bowl bigger than his head, had apparently missed or ignored his comment in favor of the food.
> 
> ...He did make a good point as to why they didn't eat like this every day.

It was only a very minor part of her that had the urge not to bother walking out onto the ring. This tournament wasn't any of her business...but then, the future of those two boys weren't really her business either. The mark on her opponent's forehead, though. That was her business.

"Are you _ready_ , folks?" The coordinator boomed out in an excited voice, buzzing back and forth across the stage. "After a truly incredible tournament, this is it! The deciding match! Who will win the five hundred thousand zenni and be crowned 'strongest under the stars'? Ino Yamanaka, the first female to make it to the finals, or the mysterious Namu, the man who has traveled the _furthest_ for this tournament? What an exciting conclusion!"

Namu stood with his hands clasped, head down once more. As the man continued to speak, she glanced across the crowd. As expected, the old man and his company were already gone. Undoubtedly Goku and Krillin had retrieved him not long after they left the waiting room, and he would be unable to explain watching the match without revealing her identity.

Well...probably.

Or he didn't care as much about her true abilities as she'd thought.

...It didn't really matter which one it was, in the end. No one was present who could possibly recognize her, nor who could glean information off of watching her. That, honestly, made things much easier for her.

The moment that the fight began, Namu shot forward, crossing an impressive distance in only a moment. Rather than dodge, her hand lanced out and snatched the ankle of the foot that struck toward her. "Is that the Byakugou?"

"What-?" For a moment, he blinked down at her hand in confusion, and then he gripped her extended wrist and twisted himself and her in a circle. It was a good reaction, forcing her to release his leg in order to land on her feet instead of her back...but it wasn't the _answer_ she wanted.

Which was just...frustrating of him.

She smacked aside a lightning fast chop, and stepped forward, hooking her leg around his and knocking him off balance. " _The mark on your forehe-_ ah!" She cut herself off, and sprung backward, kicking away from him just in time to avoid some unpleasant cross-chop attack.

He stumbled to his feet with as impassive and determined an expression as ever, and she grit her teeth in frustration. He hadn't even responded to a _word_ she said yet! The day had been vexing enough as it was, this man...just... _made it worse_! She might have been in love with a man whose second (maybe third, these days...) favorite thing in the world was _silence_ , but even _he_ answered her questions when she asked them.

She clenched her fist and held it in front of herself, threatening. "If you think I won't just beat an answer out of you, _you're wrong_."

He swerved to the right just in time to dodge her strike, and then swept behind her. Much as Krillin had with her, she spun and lifted her arm to catch his counter-strike just in time. Unlike the small, untrained boys in the tournament, when she blocked...she didn't move an inch.

"Are you storing ki? Is that why it's different?"

His leg bent slightly, an almost unconscious movement to prepare for one of his quick kicks. She kicked him in the knee before he could do anything more than that. When he immediately dropped down in pain, her fist connected with his face.

Irritated as she was (and perhaps it wasn't _just_ because he refused to answer her...), she still controlled her strength enough to ensure that he wouldn't go right out of the ring and then escape her in the confusion of whatever crowning ceremony would follow her victory.

" _What is it?_ If it isn't ki, what are you sealing away?"

He sighed and shook his head as she walked toward him again. "I am sorry...but I don't have time to puzzle through the nonsense of your words." His arms crossed in front of him, and he drew in a deep breath. "You are a truly strong opponent...and so you leave me with no other choice."

 _Nonsense_...?

He kicked the ground, and in an instant, leaped high into the air. Her head snapped up immediately, tracking his progress. The boys had jumped an impressive height once they took their shells off, and she'd noticed her own steps had become incredibly light without the weight on her back...but the height Namu soared to was far beyond either of those.

"It's time to finish this!" The distant voice of the man echoed across the ring as his distant form grew in size and distinction with alarming speed. " _Namu Abudabutsu!_ "

Could she dodge him in time? How much impact would whatever technique he used have on the ring itself? Would he be able to adapt to her movement as he fell? Just what would that do if she let it hit her?

Probably, she didn't really want to know the answer to that last question.

Ah... _damn_.

Her arm lanced upward as he shot down toward her with the speed of one of Naruto's Rasen-Shiruken, and she cracked open her seal. Over the last eight months her natural chakra collection had been building her reserves back up again. It wasn't nearly at the level it had been in the war, but it was enough to activate mitochondrial regeneration if she needed it.

Which she probably would.

The impact of his arm and her hand reverberated off of every surface of the tournament stadium like an explosion. Bones fractured and shattered and then re-knit throughout her hand and arm and shoulder. Her fingers seized around one of his wrists, unyielding.

She held the man above her head with all the effort one might use to hold up a small bird. "You're wrong. _I'm_ the one who doesn't have time."

For a few moments, as silence reigned over the stadium crowd, he stared down at her with eyes and mouth open wide in shock. Despite the technique being one that he'd obviously saved for a desperate finishing blow, the mark on his head showed no difference at all.

He shook himself slightly, and someone in the crowd shouted in excitement, rousing the crowd once more. Without making any attempt to prize his wrist from her grip, he curled up into a ball and swung himself down legs jutting out, using her own grip as leverage to kick her off of her feet.

She twisted, and slammed him into the ground. Underneath him, the tiles of the ring cracked, making a sickening and unpleasant sound. She dropped down and pressed her knee into his chest, fist cocked back. " _What is the mark on your head_? Tell me!"

He stared up her, eyes still wide, expression evidently still dazed from the impact with the ring. "I-it...is a...mark of wisdom..."

She frowned. "Wisdom?"

He glanced around the ring, and she pressed her knee into his chest. She wasn't about to let him escape again until he gave her answers.

"How does it work? Is it a seal? An inherited mark?"

His brows furrowed, and he frowned up at her. "Seal...? It is...a tattoo."

"A..."

Energy drained from her limbs, and her arm slowly sank to her side. A _tattoo_. All of that time she'd spent thinking about how she could try to use two sources of chakra to escape, trying to determine just what the differences in the seal could mean...

 _All of the time she thought she might have been closer to finding her way home_.

She'd gone off at the three boys for not thinking enough, for making assumptions about their opponents...and she hadn't even _considered_ the mark might have been nothing more than a clan symbol engraved in his skin by brute force.

She shook her head and gave a soft, bitter laugh.

Her master would have words with her if she'd seen her now.

She straightened, and backed away from the man. He struggled to his feet, expression wary and confused, and she turned away from him. What the hell was she thinking, listening to that old man, anyway? This entire tournament was a waste of her time.

She sighed, and walked away from the stadium. "I give."

(*)

He...kind of felt better about losing in the semi-finals now. Even if it was against a girl.

Maybe it was the food sitting in front of him ( _way_ better food than he'd had in the past year), maybe it was that Goku had _also_ lost his semi-final fight, so he didn't actually let Goku down, and he wasn't actually that far behind Goku anyway. Maybe it was that his master had promised they'd get more, better training now.

The pep talk, unlike some of the ones he'd had that day, actually made him feel pretty good.

"It's too bad we can't eat like this every day."

His fellows at the table sans one looked up at him, and then pointedly stared at Goku. The boy, busy scarfing down food out of a bowl bigger than his head, had apparently missed or ignored his comment in favor of the food.

...He did make a good point as to why they didn't eat like this every day.

Considering how much Goku was eating (how much he _always_ ate, truthfully), it was a little surprising his master had offered to pay even this time when Yamcha's girlfriend denied any knowledge of offering to pay for food. (But he was pretty sure he heard _someone_ shout about paying for food in the crowd...)

"Hey, where did you say Sakura went?" He...didn't care all that much, honestly, but it changed the subject from Goku's eating.

"After Goku lost, she said she wanted to look into something." Master Roshi shrugged slightly, picking at his food with little interest. "I imagine she'll show up soon."

He huffed and shook his head. "It's not like I care if she does. Maybe she'll get lost in the city on her own and never come back." He sipped at his hot tea. "Hey, if we leave before she gets back, we don't need to ever go find her again and bring her back, right?"

His master sighed.

It was the only warning he got before someone smacked him upside the head.

(*)

She wasn't really sure why he'd bothered, but apparently at some time before he'd left, the old man had written a note for her with the address to find them at. Now that the tournament was over and done with, she had every intention of searching for more information again...but after the disappointment and... _waste_ of that tournament, she actually could use a bit of a break before she went looking again.

Besides, she did want to know how the two boys were doing after their initial disappointment.

...But on second thought, the little _brat_ could feel whatever he felt like.

Goku, the one of the two she hadn't decided to retract her concern from, almost choked on his food when he looked up at her, expression somewhere between pleased and surprised. "Sa-" He coughed, and gulped down whatever it was he'd been chewing on when she arrived. "Sakura! You missed our matches."

"Hm?" She arched an eyebrow and shoved the old man's chair further away from the empty one at the table before claiming her own seat. "No I didn't."

Krillin squinted at her in annoyance, absently rubbing at his head. "You did! You weren't in the crowd. We looked."

" _No_..." She pulled a clean bowl toward her, and pointed at him " _You_ kept looking in the wrong sections. I don't know why you thought I'd _willingly_ stand next to the old pervert."

He stared at her, clearly still unconvinced.

"If I wasn't there, how do I know you got nervous just because you were fighting a girl and started blindly rushing her until she kicked you out of the ring, and then after that Goku _slipped and fell_ out of the ring?"

"Hey..." Yamcha spoke up, then, propping his elbow on the table. "Do you know who won the finals?"

She glanced up at him, blinked, and shook her head. "After Goku fell out of the ring, I left. Sorry. It'll be posted somewhere, won't it?"

He frowned in something that might have been disappointment, and huffed. "Yeah...I suppose."

She propped her chin on her hand, and turned her attention to Goku. "So...am I gonna just keep eating with a bunch of strangers, or are you going to introduce me to your other friends?"

He coughed again, eyes wide, and pounded his chest.

Honestly...it reminded her of Naruto with his ramen.

"Oh! Oh!" He pointed across the table. "This is Yamcha! And Bulma! And these are Oolong and Pu'ar."

The pig (she would have found it strange to see a pig sitting at a table fully clothed, if she hadn't already seen a few similar creatures in the preliminaries of the tournament) scowled over at the boy. "What...I'm relegated to some kind of package deal with the _cat_ now?"

" _Excuse you!_ " The ...cat... chirped in indignation. "What's so wrong with being introduced with me?!"

"It's not _with_ that's the problem-"

The woman, Bulma, coughed loudly, and frowned at the two of them. "What they mean to say is...it's nice to meet another friend of Goku's."

"Ah, not just a friend!" Roshi spoke up suddenly, beaming from his seat. "She's helped these two boys train for the past eight months as a part of Kame House! And..." His glasses caught the light of the restaurant as he shifted in his seat. "She's actually the one who offered to pay for this meal."

She turned toward him, then, studying his knowing smile. Could it be...that he'd never expected the boys to win at all, and had only insisted she join the tournament so that he could get the prize money?

...A slow smile curled across her features even before she realized it.

"I don't know where you got that from, but you're mistaken." She shook her head, and then shifted in her seat so that she could turn out her pockets. "I don't have any money."

"... _Eh_?"


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Apparently, five hundred thousand zenni bought dinner for Goku. That's how much it was worth. Apparently Bulma carried five hundred thousand zenni on her while visiting martial arts tournaments. Apparently the old pervert of a master did not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, Dragonball. Giving literally zero wind-down time between sagas. None.

**Chapter Seventeen  
**

"You're _such_ a dirty old rat! I can't _believe_ you invited me out to dinner just so you could _make_ me pay for it! What kind of a low down pathetic _jerk_ does that to a lady, huh?"

"W-well...you _are_ rich-"

" _THAT IS NOT THE POINT, YAMCHA! AND DON'T YOU TAKE HIS SIDE, DAMMIT!_ "

Apparently, five hundred thousand zenni bought dinner for Goku. That's how much it was worth. Apparently Bulma carried five hundred thousand zenni on her while visiting martial arts tournaments. Apparently the old pervert of a master did not.

It was a petty revenge, pitting the other woman on the old man and embarrassing him, but sometimes...she was entirely capable of being satisfied by pettiness.

The food wasn't bad, either. By the time the meal was finished, she felt refreshed enough to spend the rest of the night searching for information from the rest of the town. She settled a hand on her hip and frowned over at the old man as they finally made their way out of the restaurant (driven out due to the restaurant running out of food, more than everyone having finished eating).

"In the time you had today, did you arrange for a place to stay tonight?"

He glanced up at her and then huffed. "Actually...it seems I lost my wallet at home. I don't have the money for that, either. We'll just have to go home tonight."

... _Unbelievable_.

He really _had_ expected her to win the tournament and then spend all of the winnings on things he wanted. Of course, even if she had, it all would have gone into Goku's stomach anyway.

In the end, she supposed it didn't really matter. If anything, the tournament was a reminder of how little she'd done in eight months to get home, and how much she'd twisted Kame House into a replacement for Team 7 that it _wasn't_. "...I'm staying here."

"Eh?" Krillin looked up at her in surprise, snapping out of whatever daze he'd fallen into while he watched Bulma rant at the old man. "What are you talking about?"

She shook her head slightly. "There's nothing more for me there. I need to find my way back home, and I'm not going to find it there." She hadn't mastered ki chakra yet, she'd barely been able to tap into it at all. Any time she attempted to _use_ it, her body automatically tapped into chakra the way she was used to, not the different way. But she didn't have time to learn new techniques, let alone master them.

She belonged at home, with her _real_ Team 7, looking after her family and friends, helping Naruto and Sasuke.

Goku frowned up at her. "But...we've got more training to do."

"Well..." Roshi sighed, leaning on his cane. "It's like I told you before. The Kamesennin style relies on your _own_ style. I'm afraid it's as she said. I have nothing more to teach you. From here, it is up to yourselves to advance your skill."

Bulma and Goku's other friends since realized they'd stopped following, and turned back toward them, expressions curious. Bulma spoke up, hand on her hip. "What's the hold up? Did we forget something back there?"

"She wants to stay here." Krillin glared up at her. As if it was insulting to him that the old turtle admitted to having nothing to teach her. "But that's _stupid_. She doesn't have a place to stay! You don't have any way to get a place!"

She sighed. Money wasn't particularly difficult for any shinobi to get. There was always _something_ people would pay for, and a ninja could do almost any of those things. "I'll be fine. I won't be here long, anyway."

"You wanna stay here?" Bulma frowned and looked between her and the old man. "I guess it _would_ be pretty bad staying with _him_..."

The old man harrumphed.

"It's not just that..."

"She's looking for the place she came from!" Goku spoke up before she could continue. "She fell through the sky onto Nimbus, and now she wants to get back, but I can't find the cloud she came from to take her there."

"It's not a cloud..."

The woman frowned over at her, expression an odd mix of confusion and concern. "Where's your home? If it's a magic cloud like Goku's, or anything like that, I'm sure I could help you find something just by using the Nimbus..."

She shook her head and waved her hand. "No. It's not a cloud. It's..." She wasn't unaware of how ridiculous it sounded, falling through dimensions, coming from what seemed to be an entirely different world. But it was true, and she _did_ need to get back. "It's a...different dimension. Another world. I was doing something very... _very_ important, and I need to get back to it."

"A different _dimension_?" Bulma stared at her, eyes wide, and then quickly shook her head. "Well if that's the case, you can stay with me! If there's anywhere that can track and open different dimensions, it's Capsule Corporation!"

... _Capsule_?

"Capsule..." She pointed at the row of small devices on the other woman's belt. "As in those capsules?"

Bulma blinked, and then looked down at the row of capsules for a moment, before nodding. "Oh! Yeah. I guess you wouldn't know if you weren't from around here, huh? Capsule Corporation makes these. In fact, we invented it." The girl smiled, and pointed at herself. "I'm the daughter of the president and founder, Doctor Briefs!"

She just barely caught the words Krillin muttered under his breath behind her. "Sometimes I think you actually _are_ from another world..."

She ignored the comment in favor of the woman in front of her. Someone who was capable of creating devices that worked in a fashion similar to the strange sharingan ability Obito (and Kaguya) possessed...surely that was the best possible path toward actually _finding_ a way home. No matter what, it was a possibility she had to explore.

"You're accepting the possibility that I'm from another world easily."

The woman gave a long suffering sigh. "Trust me, 'I come from another world' is _not_ the weirdest and most unbelievable thing I've heard or seen since meeting Goku."

It was too early to get her hopes up, she knew. Today had been far more than enough of a lesson of _that_.

Still...it was the first _real_ , _actual_ progress she'd made since arriving. It was the first glimmer of hope that might actually have substance. It took effort not to get at least a little bit excited over it.

"If that's it..." Goku spoke suddenly, arms crossed, face tilted down toward the ground in thought. "I'll stay with you, too."

" _Eh_?" She was fairly certain she made the sound...but then, just about every other person standing there did, as well.

"I promised to help you find your home." He nodded and looked up at her with a determined expression. "If it's somewhere here, or if it's on another world...Nimbus can help find it. And then I can meet your teacher!"

...She did remember him promising to help, months back. That said...she suspected it was the latter, and the prospect of further training, that really motivated his determination to stay.

Bulma stared down at him. "...You're not just trying to stay so I'll pay for all your food are you? Because you're gonna eat like a normal person when you're staying in my house. No all-you-can-eat binges!"

Goku huffed. "It's okay. Master Roshi always gave us little scraps of food, too. I'll be okay!"

"Little scraps..." The old man grumbled, and harrumphed again, before he shook his head. "...What about you, then, Krillin?"

"What about me?" The littlest one shook his head and crossed his arms. "I don't wanna live with that crazy lady anyway. If...if it's alright, I'll just stay with you for a while longer until I can decide what I want to do."

"Mm...if you like."

"Well then..." Bulma nodded. "Since most of you are staying with me anyway, I guess we might as well use my car. When does your ticket say your return flight is scheduled for?"

The old man fell silent for a few long moments.

...She dropped her fist down onto the top of his head.

(*)

He wasn't even sure why he felt so irritated. The crazy woman was finally out of his life, probably forever, they got a free meal and a free trip home on a private airplane, and he made it all the way to the semi-finals of the Tenkaichi Budokai on his first try. _At thirteen_.

Maybe...he just felt irritated because Goku actually believed Sakura. Like anyone would come from a different world and look _exactly the same_ as the people from _this_ world. Goku was pretty naive...but...Bulma and Master Roshi both seemed to believe her, too, and that made no sense at all.

He felt a little left out, going back to the quiet and calm Kame House while the rest of them (not counting his master) went off on wild goose chases all across the world with the crazy girl. But that was ridiculous, and he _definitely_ didn't feel anywhere near left out enough to go and waste his life on _that_ kind of thing.

While they were off adventuring, he'd just...train. Next Budokai, he'd come back and shove that woman's speeches right back at her.

(*)

From the bed, she stared around the room. It was probably almost as large as Kame House's living room. Certainly bigger than most bedrooms she'd stayed any amount of time in. The girl, Bulma, had cheerily handed her a key and told her she could stay as long as the research took. As if giving away such a large room to a stranger wouldn't be any trouble for her at all.

Apparently, Bulma Briefs of Capsule Corporation was worth _much more_ than fifty thousand zenni.

The walls of the building were thicker than the thin walls of Kame House, and the large dome of the house itself was spacious enough that even if she left the door open she didn't hear any sounds or ruckus from the rest of the house.

She was a ninja, she could sleep with constant loud noise all around her, and she could sleep in complete silence, it didn't really matter to her.

It still felt just a little strange to be in such a different situation from the one she'd spent the last year in. She didn't even need to worry about the old pervert attempting to sneak into the room in the middle of the night or early morning to peek under her sheets.

In a strange way, she found it only made her want to get back home where she belonged all that much more.

As she settled herself into sleep, the soft sound of padding footsteps caught her ear, and her eyes snapped open immediately.

Goku stood in her doorway, rubbing his hand through the back of his hair. "Um...it's really quiet. I'm used to sleeping with Grandpa, or Bulma, or Krillin, or you, so..."

After a moment, she sighed, and then shifted to the side in the bed. "Just remember...I could kill you with my bare hands."

There was, maybe, a little less threat in her voice that time than the time before.

After all, he really _didn't_ snore all that loudly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter was extra long wrapping up the tournament activities. This chapter is on the shorter side, because it probably won't be until next chapter that more things start.
> 
> Because you gotta get a little bit of down time, man.


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She actually found it pretty impressive Goku spent an entire month in the building without getting restless. She found it slightly more impressive she made it an entire month being prodded and poked as much as she was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's not likely to come up any time soon, so fun fact time- Sakura is 17 in the Fourth war, set on October 9th. When she arrived on Kame island, it was September. The tournament was eight months later, and so June in her relative timeline and May by Dragonball's calendar. As her birthday is in March, she is now 18, slightly older than Bulma and Yamcha.
> 
> This isn't relevant to anything other than that this is also chapter eighteen.

Sakura doubled over backward to dodge Goku's sudden lunge. He spun through the air, and then rolled across the ground a moment, before he sprung to his feet and rounded on her again with an expression of pure determination.

The compact figure bounced off of the ground a moment later, and outstretched fingers almost grazed across the shiny metal object held daintily between her fingers. The moment he passed her by, she spun around and kicked him square in the back, sending him sliding across the lawn in what looked to be a fairly painful way.

Honestly, he couldn't tell if the training they were doing was actually _useful_ in some way, or if it was entirely designed to make the person trying to grab the bell look like an idiot through clever use of counter attacks and a style based around dodging.

Just to play it safe, Yamcha generally refused to join in on Sakura and Goku's apparently favorite time waster.

Training. Their favorite method of _training_.

If he could say one thing for it as far as training went, Goku did end up pretty bruised by the end of their games, and at least since _he'd_ been watching it seemed like Goku was getting closer to actually getting it. But then again, he might have been as close to catching it as a pig was to catching a carrot on a stick.

He'd get _such_ an earful if Oolong had heard him use a metaphor like that.

Goku shouted, and swung his magical red pole through the air toward her. She flipped sideways over it as it swept at her hips, and then struck out an arm to block the flying kick he'd immediately followed it with. If nothing else, the woman had good reflexes. Apparently she refused to enter the tournament despite the rest of Kame house insisting she did, due to the whole...different world thing...

It made him wonder how she would have fared against the woman who'd been in the tournament instead, though. Apparently she'd been defeated in the final round...but he'd fought her. She was _strong_ , and she'd been holding back for a reason he'd never really figured out. That she lost just summoned up many more questions than if she'd just gone and won it.

Maybe he was being just a little bit prideful.

Maybe, but he didn't really think so.

As another kick knocked Goku out of the air, Bulma walked out of the building, hair tied up in a bun, eyes gleaming as they often did when she had some idea she thought was particularly good.

"Hey, you two! Can you stop messing up my lawn? I let you stay here free of charge, and the two of you keep rewarding me by _ruining my grass_!" She propped her hands on her hips while the two turned their attention toward her. "...Anyway, that's not the point. Sakura, can you come here for a minute? I think I've got something, but I need to take some readings off of you first."

(*)

Bulma sighed and shook her head. "I don't know what's causing the interference."

She'd been getting a handle on computers in her time there, but the science behind Bulma's research was way beyond what she could pick up in a month of listening and reading about it. She actually found it pretty impressive Goku spent an entire month in the building without getting restless. She found it slightly more impressive _she_ made it an entire month being prodded and poked as much as she was.

The teal-haired woman shook her head. "I need more information. I'm only guessing most of the time right now."

Goku perked up. "Nimbus and I could go and search each place for her way home!"

She spoke before Bulma could. "There's too many to do that."

"Besides..." Bulma shook her head. "Without the right equipment, you wouldn't even be able to _see_ it, let alone do anything with it. I won't be able to make something to interact with it until I can get some readings out of the place she came from. Or...places, if there's more than one opening."

She frowned over at the other woman. "Are you saying there's nothing you can do?"

"It's only been a _month_! You're asking me to do something that hasn't ever even been _considered_ before, let alone attempted!" She huffed and glared. "Frankly, something like this...you'll be lucky if I can do this in a few years. Maybe a decade. It would take a _lifetime_ if I were anyone else."

"Decade..." A heavy weight settled over her chest and shoulders as the woman's words sank in.

Ten years...

A part of her wondered if her friends would even _remember_ her after ten years. After ten years, Naruto would probably be Hokage. Sasuke...would...

might...

She placed a hand to her head, and turned away from the screen that displayed hundreds of colorful dots. It might not take ten years. It might not even take a year. Maybe. But, then again...it could. Even her best chance of finding her way home the quickest (that she'd found so far) would take _years_.

Maybe she needed to leave and find other ways.

She shook her head, and walked away from the pair, back toward the room she'd been given.

Maybe she needed to focus on finding a way to create her own jutsu to escape.

Maybe...

"What if we used the dragonballs and wished her home?" Goku spoke in a thoughtful voice.

Dragonballs?

Wish?

She turned in place, and looked back at the two of them. Goku looked thoughtful, and Bulma...looked...stunned?

The woman blinked, and then shook her head again, expression flickering to irritation. " _I-_ I guess that would work. It wouldn't help me with my research, though..."

She spoke over Bulma. "What are you talking about? _What_ would work?"

"Dragonballs." Goku held up his hands in a small sphere shape. "They're little orange balls with glowing red stars. There's seven of them, and when you gather them together, you can summon a giant dragon and get any wish."

"... _What_?"

(*)

"You want to collect the dragonballs?" He blinked, and looked between Sakura and Goku. "I...guess that would work, now that I think about it..."

"It's not a permanent solution..." Bulma seemed to still be sulking a little bit about it. She _had_ been kind of excited about the research opportunities involved in finding a way to open doors into other dimensions.

It was probably best he not mention she could just use the dragonballs to create something like that, too.

He sighed, and shook his head. Honestly, he _really_ didn't want to have to offer, given how much trouble last time was, but... "Are you two gonna need any help?"

Goku shook his head. It was a little tough to say if Goku looked more excited about being given something to do that wasn't bothering _him_ all day about training, or if Sakura looked more excited at being the one to get the wish. If he had to make a wager, though, he'd suspect Goku was.

"It's okay. The two of us should be able to handle it!"

Sakura frowned and looked over Goku's shoulder at the radar. "And you know how to use this...?"

"Yeah! It's easy, I'll show you how to use it, too!"

The radar was probably the _only_ easy part of that kind of a search, really. "...I guess this means this will be the last we see of you then, Sakura."

The pink haired girl glanced up from the radar in Goku's hands, and then offered a small smile. "I guess it is. Thank you for your hospitality."

"You never know..." Bulma propped her hand on her hip. "Now that I know there's a dimension out there with people in it like you, I'm not gonna stop until I can find a way to get there. Eventually, maybe you'll have to show me around your place."

The two girls shared a laugh, and he shook off the eerie feeling he got every time they did that. crossed his arms. "Are you sure you two don't want to wait until Oolong and Pu'ar get back? They might want to go with..." Well...probably _not_ , but...

Goku shook his head. "We should go soon, or other people might start collecting them first."

He... _seriously_ doubted that. Unless Emperor Pilaf had the guts to go and try to collect them again so soon after his... _crushing_ defeat. But the answer didn't surprise him anyway. Goku had been antsy most of the month, and Sakura had been impatient to leave since he'd met her.

" _Nimbus_!" Goku shouted through cupped hands. "Let's go on an adventure!"

(*)

Goku's golden cloud had considerably less room on it than the airplane or the cars she'd ridden in recently, but she felt more comfortable on it than those. Floating summons flying through the air, those were something she was already very familiar with. Non-living contraptions doing it for her were...not. It was difficult to track the speed they were traveling, but it had to be at least as fast as Sasuke's snake had moved.

Truly, traveling summons were the best way to cross distances. Moments like these she wished her master had given her a contract with a giant hare instead. Fortunately, they were never moments where Lady Katsuyu was present to become offended.

She looked over his shoulder as they flew across the sky. "What range is that?"

"Huh?" He glanced up at her as the cloud zoomed over low-lying hills.

"How far can it see?"

"Well..." He tapped the top button a few times, and the image on it changed, the yellow dots increasing in number each time, until all seven were visible. "It shows all of them. But it's not very much use like this. It looks like they're all really close, but they're actually far away still."

"So then..." She pointed to the one they currently flew toward, up at the top of the green circle, "How far are we from this?"

He looked at it for a few moments, and then shrugged. "Mmm...dunno. We'll just have to keep flying until we get to it!"

She frowned, tracking the infinitesimal progress the glowing dot made toward the center as they moved, and then glanced up at the setting sun on the horizon. "I don't think we'll make it there by the end of the day."

"Normally I just fall asleep on Nimbus while I go places."

Considering his size, she...could see how he could manage that without falling off of the cloud. However...any attempt by herself to do that would almost certainly result in falling to her death in the night. Or, at the very least, being left behind while the boy slept for hours longer. As overdue as her return home might have been, she wasn't willing to risk being stranded or killed just to hurry it along a bit more.

"Bulma gave me a house to use." The idea seemed strange, but then Captain Yamato had done something very similar on the missions they'd went on with him. Erecting a house out of nothing was disconcerting, but at least it was something she understood on the surface. A surface understanding was at least better than being completely lost every time Bulma tried a 'new approach' to her experiments over the past month.

"Oh...well...I guess we could do that, too." Goku nodded. "It'll be slower, but Nimbus _would_ be a little crowded if we both tried to sleep on it."

She sighed.

Considering how crowded it was with just the two of them _sitting_ on it, she actually suspected either of them attempting to lay down on it in any fashion would result in _both_ of them falling off of it.

And the cloud would probably leave them both behind, if they did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Other fun fact- This chapter was going to be set earlier in the month and probably be all training oriented, but I decided on keeping up pacing instead.
> 
> Also the first ten chapters was pretty much all training as it is.


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She squinted down at him for a moment. He might not have gone to the academy, but surely even civilian children were taught about climates, and that the north tended to get much colder than the south, where Kame House was.

Brilliant light refracted across the morning dew on the grass, making it appear as if the entire surrounding hillside were full of the stars that slowly faded out of the sky above. The light danced across her skin, damp from her earlier training.

Raw chakra - no, something even more basic than what she understood chakra to be, the sort of chakra that composed tailed beasts _\- ki_ danced in a flickering ball between her fingertips. When she summoned chakra alone, without form or element, only those with special eyes would be able to see it until it was applied into some technique. Ki pulsed with all the brilliance and life of creation, tinting her pink hair, which already begun to grow long and unruly, soft white.

The front door slammed, and light scattered into the faint dawn.

Her ability to summon and manipulate ki instead of chakra was improving...but it still required utmost concentration. Her body flowed constantly with chakra, she constantly funneled every spare amount of chakra her body created into the seal in her forehead. The moment she lost her concentration, she automatically reached for chakra instead, and the ki destabilized into the air.

Goku scrubbed at his hair, expression groggy from sleep. "...You were up early training?"

She smoothed her hands across her knees and brushed the dew off of where it had collected on her when she sat. "I'm used to waking early."

He stretched and twisted his body, looking up at the sky. "Well...if you're awake too, I guess we can leave."

She straightened, and knocked off stray blades of grass from her legs, before she made her way over to the house. The wall next to the door held a small panel full of buttons, and she knew one of them locked the door, several in a code unlocked it, and another reduced the house into a capsule again.

She couldn't remember which one it was.

She rubbed at her chin and frowned, staring down at it. "What button makes it small...?"

"Um..." Goku wandered up to the door next to her and squinted up at the panel for several moments. Finally, he reached up and poked one of the buttons with...surprising speed, for his uncertain expression.

A moment and a puff of smoke later, a small capsule lay in the grass where the house had been.

"That one!"

She squinted down at him. "...Did you just blindly guess?"

He chuckled, and then turned away from her, calling for his...whatever it was. " _Nimbus_! It's morning, come on!"

In the darkness, she realized as it approached that it wasn't just golden in color. It _glowed_.

(*)

She rubbed at her arm. "No, it's _definitely_ getting colder."

"...I thought so, too." Goku frowned down at the radar for a moment in thought. "I wonder why? It's still daylight..."

"Well..." She pointed down at the light, now much closer to the center. "I'm guessing this radar is calibrated like a compass. We were down here..." She pointed below the actual radar, and then back to the light. "Now we're up here. We must have moved very far north."

"Well...yeah, but that doesn't explain why it's colder."

She squinted down at him for a moment. He might not have gone to the academy, but surely even civilian children were taught about climates, and that the north tended to get much colder than the south, where Kame House was. "We're _very_ far north. So far north we must be getting to where it's cold."

Goku turned his head and frowned up at her, confusion etched across his features. "It's cold in the far north? Why?"

"That's..."

...She didn't actually know. It just... _was_.

She shook her head slightly. "Well, it's..." She trailed off, as she looked off into the distance again. "What's that?"

"Huh?" He glanced up at her, and then turned his attention to the hazy structure in the distance. "Uh...I wonder." He looked down at the radar again. "Maybe it's where the dragonball is? Look." He pointed down at the radar. "It should be just about here."

She frowned. If they really scattered to random places in the world, like Bulma had described, then chances were far more likely it was lost in the snow fields below them than in the warm and enclosed structure ahead of them. It was probably too much to hope for it to be in the easily identifiable spot.

"Is that as close a picture as it can get?"

"Uh..." He pressed the button on the top again, and the dragonball signal jumped away from the center again, further north. "Oh! But it _is_ close."

"It might be near that structure..."

"Yeah! Maybe it fell from the sky and landed on the top of it!"

Well...it was possible.

"Come on N-Nimbus! Le-et's go!" She hadn't noticed it before, and it was possible he just...hadn't at all yet...but he was shivering now. The cold _was_ getting biting, especially with the chill wind blowing against them.

"No, wait." She touched his shoulder. "Let's try walking the rest of the way."

"Huh?" His eyes looked a little unfocused, but it could have been the angle they were walking. At the very least though, his teeth were starting to chatter. No, the cold wind blowing on him directly like it was with the Nimbus wasn't good. Not when he was still dressed for the warm south.

"Down." She touched the golden cloud, then. "Do you think you can put us down there?"

She...wasn't sure if it'd listen to her at all. She couldn't really figure out what it was, so the rules about how it worked were still definitely beyond her understanding. But she hoped. Goku was stubborn, impulsive, and could have been addled by the cold.

She felt a mixture of relief and surprise when the cloud suddenly slowed, and then slowly lowered them down to ground level. Whatever it was, at least it seemed to be able to think and listen to reason, even if she wasn't its master, or the one with a contract.

"B _rr_ -" Goku curled his arms around himself protectively. "Wh...why are we here? The dragonball is further ahead."

She fished around in her belt pocket (something she'd picked up while staying with Bulma) and withdrew a decent sized rock. She held her arm out off of the cloud and let the pebble drop into the blanket of snow beneath the cloud.

...It sank to about the height of her thighs.

Damn.

"...Let's go at this height. But slowly." She nodded, turning her gaze back to the confused one of Goku. "The wind up there is too cold. If we kept moving that quickly, we'd freeze before we made it to the dragonball."

"I feel like I'll freeze _like this_..." He grumbled to himself, but he didn't say anything to make the cloud change from following her suggestion.

But then...he was smaller than her, he might have had lighter clothes than her, _certainly_ less layers. And she doubted that he knew how to stimulate his chakra network to raise his body temperature. Even at a lower height with some shelter from the wind...there was reason to worry about Goku's state.

The terrain was pretty barren, it would be difficult, and maybe expose him to the cold longer, to try to find something to start a fire with, even if it were just a torch. She'd forged explosive tags, but those were worse than useless under the circumstances.

She sighed after a moment, and placed her hands over his shoulders. "Don't move."

He didn't know how to stimulate his chakra network, and it would take _far_ too long to teach him. Medical ninjutsu, however, was very much about stimulating the networks of other people for them. She focused for a moment, summoned a burst of chakra, and heard him gasp.

With both hands, as long as he sat still enough for her to keep contact, she could force her chakra to flow through both of them in a continuous circuit. Technically, it didn't really increase his temperature. If she worked fire chakra into it she could, but involving element transformation would just increase the probability of harming him on accident.

Raw chakra, though, she could manipulate that with ease. Stimulating his cells to regrow healed the damage done by the cold and allowed his body to combat the temperature without tiring or straining itself as noticeably. It wouldn't do much to make him _feel_ less cold, but it would make sure he wasn't _hurt_ by the cold.

...More accurately, it made sure when he was hurt by the cold, his body instantly recovered.

"What are you...?"

"This is my secret technique. Don't tell." Her lips twitched up into a faint smile, even though he hadn't disobeyed her order and still looked ahead. "This will make sure the cold can't hurt you. Just...don't move. It won't work if my hands slip."

He fell quiet for a few moments, apparently considering her words. Healing him wasn't the only thing the chakra circuit could do, though. While she'd hooked into his network, she could trace the length of it, feel around his entire being for injuries.

And there _was_ something.

She'd never sensed it before, actually. It didn't really make sense. Chakra gates cut off pathways through the body for safety, and because of that there were always the odd well or two of chakra that had accidentally or intentionally built up in some of those, or specialized and insufficient training left pathways that were completely underdeveloped.

His network had two most notable differences: it was completely _wrong_ , but that could have been by virtue of being from a totally different dimension of reality, and there was an entire pathway completely unutilized. It didn't seem to go anywhere, and it didn't seem to be blocked by anything.

She frowned slightly, and as a test, threaded her healing, stimulating chakra through it. He startled, and then something warm shot across her leg, tickling her skin.

She shrieked in surprise and her hands flew away from his shoulder all on their own. "Wh- _what?!"_

For some reason, curling along her knee and thigh in front of her, was a fresh...brown... _tail_. Sprouting out of Goku.

She stared for a moment more, and then tried speaking again. "- _What_?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A variation of the first part of this chapter was going to be in the other version of last chapter. I moved it here so the training wouldn't dominate the chapter.
> 
> You know who was under-utilized, on reflection? The white mage. Poor Dende. More Saiyans should have thought like Vegeta and hit Dende up for training shortcuts, instead of burning through emergency senzu bean stashes in peace time.


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Is that normal for people here?" She would doubt it, as she'd yet to see any human-looking people with tails...but then there were walking, talking, fully clothed dogs of large size. The side dimension of Kaguya's was strange indeed. If she hadn't long abandoned the idea that she was trapped in a genjutsu, those creatures would much more cement the idea that her mind was simply dreaming and coming up with things on a whim.

"Ah!" Goku twisted in place, looking over his shoulder, expression surprised...and then delighted. " _My tail_!"

His... _tail_?

He stood up on the cloud, and then jumped off into the snow. For a moment, she expected him to disappear into the white fluff, but it seemed the cloud had moved them on beyond that particular drift, and he sank only to his knees. The brown tail curled and uncurled around and behind him, and he spun in a circle, pleased. "I thought it'd never grow back!"

"Goku..."

He stopped, and looked up at her, eyes wide with expectation.

"Why do...? You have a tail." She meant to make that a question, but in her attempt to keep her voice level with the small boy, it fell flat and came out as a statement instead.

He shrugged slightly. "Well...it just grew back. I don't know why. It must have been something you did."

" _I didn't make you grow a tail!_ " She was, maybe, starting to lose control of her tone. But he did grow a tail. Not even a fleshy one like a human _might_. A _furry tail_. Grew _back_. " _Why do you have a tail_?"

He blinked and looked over his shoulder. The tail twitched lazily in the air. "Well...if you didn't do it, I don't know. Maybe it just wanted to grow back now."

...She probably wasn't elaborating on her question right, he was after all still a child. A child like a civilian would be, not like a shinobi of his age would be. She crossed her arms and stared down at the cloud for a moment to gather herself again, then sighed. "Why did you have a tail in the first place?"

When she looked back up at him, he rubbed at his head and frowned. "I dunno. I was born with it."

"Is that _normal_ for people here?" She would doubt it, as she'd yet to see any human-looking people with tails...but then there were walking, talking, fully clothed dogs of large size. The side dimension of Kaguya's was strange indeed. If she hadn't long abandoned the idea that she was trapped in a genjutsu, those creatures would much more cement the idea that her mind was simply dreaming and coming up with things on a whim.

"Um...I don't think so?" He shrugged. "But it's normal for me! And now that it's back I feel much better!"

He ran in a circle around the cloud, bouncing and flipping off of the ground, using his tail to balance in places, or to swing off of his red staff in the ground. Just from observing him, he _did_ move and use it like someone who was very comfortable and familiar with the tail. And she really had no reason to believe he'd lie to her.

...So apparently, among the other differences in this strange dimension she was trapped in, sometimes people were simply born with tails.

For no reason at all.

He stiffened suddenly, and then scrambled back onto the cloud, teeth chattering, arms clutched around him. "I-it's _still c-c-cold!_ "

After running around like an idiot in the snow just because he'd regrown his tail, his skin felt almost as cold as the snow to the touch. She huffed, and pressed him down by his shoulders to the cloud again, just to keep him from bouncing around. "Sit still then, idiot."

His shivering slowed back down a bit once she opened the circuit between them again. But...it really wasn't a permanent fix. She might have had plenty of chakra to spare, but eventually if she kept burning it up to keep herself and him warm (rather, to repair the damage the cold made, as she couldn't risk using elemental chakra with him) she'd eventually run out. And she couldn't keep up this connection if they actually _moved._ As any proper search for a small round thing in a very large building would require.

At this distance, she could barely even make out the shape of the structure in the distance. If it was abandoned and crumbling, the temperature would only barely improve inside the building. Even if it was in good condition, if it was empty (as she assumed it would be, considering its position) it would be too cold for his summery clothing and his tiny form.

No matter what, they just weren't prepared for collecting this dragonball. Especially if there were others lost in mountains due to _their_ height. She huffed, and glanced down at the cloud. "Hey...Nimbus...do you happen to know where any villages are nearby? We need to get more clothing before we can go to that tower."

Goku frowned. "What, why?"

"We'll freeze if we stay like this and have to go searching through a crumbled building when it's so cold."

He tilted his head slightly, thoughtful, and then finally nodded. "...I guess you're right. Nimbus! Let's go somewhere we can change clothes!"

The golden cloud arced slightly up into the sky again, and then dipped off to the right, swerving away from the distant structure at a faster pace than it had been going before.

She knew it was impatience, absolutely unreasonable considering the difference from this and ten years of waiting...but as she watched the structure vanish into haze, she felt a painful longing tug at her heart. In her mind, only for a moment, it felt like Sasuke and Naruto were slipping through her fingers as she slipped through Sasuke's when she stumbled and fell into this world in the first place.

Her fingers twitched and one hand lifted slightly, before she securely placed her hands against his shoulders again, and forced herself to look ahead instead.

She didn't need to look far. Just ahead, a small grouping of houses appeared and then solidified into a tiny...snowy village.

"Ah, there it is!" Goku pointed, and the nimbus sank down to the ground. "There's people here, so there must be some kind of clothes we can borrow here!"

She doubted very much that anyone would let strangers _borrow_ clothing, particularly in such a harsh and secluded place as this. But if there was a village, there would be a shop of some sort hidden away inside it. And even if she had no zenni to be found on her, Goku would almost certainly have some stashed away by at least _one_ of his friends. He did, after all, _live_ in this world. Unlike her.

(*)

The village had a shop.

Goku didn't have a zenni on him.

The lady in the shop, run down as she looked, was _surprisingly_ understanding of this. For some reason.

"...Well..." The woman sighed, and shook her head. "I suppose I may as well give up on being _paid_ for my services by now anyway."

Sakura frowned and crossed her arms. Even with a small village, there ought to be _some_ sort of economy or currency. "What do you mean? Why wouldn't you be paid?"

"Well...it's obvious, isn't it?" The woman shook her head. "The Red Ribbon Army simply takes what it wants. And since it's taken away all of the jobs most of the people in the village used to do, there's hardly anyone around with anything to _spend_."

Goku looked up from the mirror where he'd been making faces into then. "Red Ribbon Army? What's that?"

"You don't know what the Red Ribbon Army is?" The woman looked between them in confusion. "But they patrol the roads. You'd need to go through a check point of theirs just to get here."

"Oh, that's because we-"

"-Took an alternate path through the hills." Goku's method of transportation might have been a nonissue in this strange world (though she doubted it even so, given the lack of other people using it) but there was no need to announce that they _had_ such a thing anyway. "Our transportation broke a little while ago and we had to walk here."

"Heavens." The woman tutted. "You're lucky to have found us. If you wandered any further to the east or west, you'd have wandered into emptiness and surely died. Worse, you might have run into Muscle Tower and been apprehended by the Red Ribbon Army."

_Muscle Tower_...

So then the building they'd seen _wasn't_ uninhabited? And an 'army' of some sort, quite possibly, had possession of a dragonball? At least...unknowing possession.

"And the Red Ribbon Army is what?" She prompted, arching an eyebrow.

The woman shook her head. "All that we know here is that they're a dangerous military power. One day they appeared in our village and demanded that we help them find something called a dragonball, when-"

"A _dragonball_?" Goku cut in, eyes wide. "They're looking for the dragonballs too?"

"Er..." The woman frowned, a nervous expression flickering across her face as she looked between the two of them. "That's...that is what they said."

Sakura huffed. If they really did grant _wishes (_ how that worked she still had _no idea)_ then it wasn't a surprise that eventually a military power would want them. She'd be more surprised if she found out none had done it before.

Goku scratched at his hair, thoughtful. "But...what do they want to wish for?"

The woman was quiet for a few moments, and then shook her head. "...All that they've told us is that we must help them find the dragonball in this area."

The 'or else' in the matter was fairly obvious.

She spoke again, with that in mind. "Their base is in that tower down the way?"

The woman nodded. "At least...the one that they have here. They must have come from somewhere else as well..."

"Well, don't worry!" Goku thumped his chest with his fist. "We'll go beat them up and scare them away for good!"

"Besides that, whatever it is they want to wish for that they're willing to go to this extent for," obvious as it was, "we'll make sure they don't get it."

The woman's expression turned to one of concern. "Don't be ridiculous. You're only a small child and a girl. I didn't mean to have the two of you run off and get yourselves _killed!_ Truly...we'll be fine on our own. Eventually they'll leave, and things will go back to the way they were before."

She clicked her tongue and propped her hand on her hip. "Don't worry about us. I know we don't look like much...but trust me." She lifted her hand then and clenched it into a fist in front of herself. "They _won't_ be the first army I've destroyed with my bare hands."


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She'd been hired quite a few times to eliminate armies like this one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That sure was a short chapter, huh? The last three chapters have been downtime, transition, and exposition!
> 
> Surely next must be action.

As it turned out, the tower wasn't all that far from the village, following the actual roads. She tugged the warm scarf over her head a bit tighter as they ran, as the chill wind threatened to blow it away. With proper attire, the snow was much easier to handle, and she saw no reason why they couldn't go by foot to the tower. It reduced the chances of being attacked on sight, and gave them more time to see where exactly the dragonball happened to be.

Although...the device in his hand didn't seem to have any sort of height indicator.

"Sakura?" Goku glanced up at her as they ran.

"Goku."

"What's all this cold, white stuff?"

...Just what did the civilian schools teach the children of this other dimension? Clearly the southern part of the world rarely saw snow, but he should have been aware of what it was by his age. "It's snow."

He blinked. "Oh."

Ahead, a small group of soldiers stood in the snow. The taller one spotted them first, and held out a hand. " _Hold_!"

She glanced down at her companion a moment. He flashed an excited grin, and then charged on ahead. There were certain advantages to cooperating with enemies, or potential enemies, for a short time. None would be all that necessary under the circumstances.

She jumped through the air (rather impressively high, she had to say) as explosions rang out through the crisp morning, and threw a hail of kunai down at the group below. When she'd arrived in the world she only had one left, but the resources available to her while she stayed with Bulma allowed her to create many more for herself again. It felt good, even if she hadn't been in a real battle where she needed one since she'd arrived.

Below, Goku's shout rang out over the din. " _Power pole extend!_ " Red flashed across white, and the remaining soldiers standing in the snow were swept away.

She spun in the air, and landed in the snow next to Goku with a soft thud. White snow slowly stained red where her men had fallen. A cursory glance didn't indicate any fatal injuries on the ones Goku defeated, but without proper care in the frozen north, they wouldn't be getting back up to trouble the village further.

Ahead of them loomed the massive wooden doors of Muscle Tower. She glanced over at Goku with a small smile. "Think we should knock and see if anyone's home?"

He glanced up at her and gave a short nod. "Okay!"

She clenched her hand into a fist and sprinted toward the tower, keeping pace with Goku as they ran. Fists slammed into twin doors with matching shouts. Wood splintered, and then exploded inward. His door cracked in half, and the halves flipped wildly into the darkness. Hers shattered into spinning pieces in the air.

"Yeah!" He cheered.

His voice echoed back out of the darkness, but no other sounds followed it, save for the crashing of wood and metal caused by the doors. Her smile faded to a frown, and she walked into the dark, cautious. No movement came from the inside, and...as her eyes adjusted to the darkness, there didn't seem to be anyone in there at all.

Goku walked in after her, eyes sweeping the room. "There's nobody here."

She pursed her lips, and propped her hands on her hips. "Cold welcome."

On closer look, it seemed like the room was nothing more than a storage floor for...vehicles? Or other large devices that looked similar to those. Either they were entirely unprepared for the sudden assault on their tower (which was possible), or they'd already retreated to better fortified upper levels.

She rolled her shoulders and walked up the stairs at the back of the room. "Is the dragonball near here?"

Goku frowned down at it. "It's close..."

Could it be that it was just outside the building? Or was a portion of the building sticking out further? If it were just about getting the dragonball, she'd investigate that immediately. At the moment, though, she also wanted to get rid of the army itself. It would be trouble for them if a military force also happened to be collecting dragonballs...and she had never been a fan of oppressive forces.

She'd been hired quite a few times to eliminate armies like this one.

As she walked into the second floor, well lit and warm, the group of men lounging at chairs and tables around the room looked up in surprise.

"What...?" A large bearded man looked between the others on the floor. "Were we gonna get _company_?"

"Oh, there's people here!" Goku chirped, as he appeared behind her. "They must have been up here because it's too cold down there."

"Eh?" A blond man blinked, and then laughed. "A little twerp and a girl? Did you two get _lost_?"

A voice crackled through the air. " _Don't fool around! These two just forced their way inside the building!"_

The first man stood, a look of surprise on his face. "What...these two got past the guards outside?"

Laughter rippled through the room, and the second spoke. "Damn, I knew they were startin' to slack off, but this is _hilarious_."

" _Eliminate them immediately._ "

 "Ahh, what a disappointment. Finally get a girl in here, and we've gotta kill her already?" The blond sighed, and drew out a knife from his pocket. "I don't get paid enough to go and do that without getting to play around a little bit first."

...She really wouldn't mind destroying these people.

She sprinted forward, and Goku launched into the room right after her. She flicked her hand and knocked the knife across the room, burying it into the wall, as Goku kicked the other talker into the brick stairs. "You're right..."

The man stumbled back a step in surprise, then recovered, swinging wildly at her face. One finger halted his strike. Her lips twitched up into a faint smirk. "You should have asked for S rank pay."

Her punch connected with his gut for only a moment, and he slammed through the far wall, vanishing into the snow in the distance.

The two men stood in shock, looking between the hole in the wall and the crumpled soldier on the ground. Whether they were about to run, or whether they were about to make a fool's rush, neither of them got the chance. An elbow to the throat of one, and a flip kick to the chin of the other put the two of them on the ground before they could do anything at all.

She sighed as she looked over the room. With the open wall, cold was already starting to blow in and chill her through her clothes. "...Perhaps we should try not to break any of the walls one the other floors."

"...I guess not."

She nodded. "Come on, before we go looking for the Dragonball, let's see what the rest of this tower has for us."

"Yeah!" He cheered, no doubt excited just by the prospect of fighting more people than he would otherwise, and sprinted up the stairs. She followed after him only a step behind, glancing around the room and the structure of the floor as they moved up the layered staircase.

The floor above them was dimly lit, devoid of windows, and echoed with a soft whirring sound.

"Welcome." A deep voice echoed from the darkness of the room as they stepped off of the stairs, and a heavy thudding sound echoed off of the floor and walls. "This will be the last room you ever see."

From the room, a huge, hulking figure slowly appeared. She'd never seen anyone so...musclebound. She'd seen almost no one so large, without an Akimichi growing jutsu. Goku stared up at him wide eyed for a few moments, before turning his attention to her, expression bright and expectant. "Sakura! Can I fight this one? I wanna try my new tail!"

She sighed. That was an _awful_ way to plan out a strategy. Honestly. She waved her hand and shook her head. "Then I'll be annoyed if you change your mind and make me finish him after all."

"Not a chance!" He grinned and marched toward the giant. "You wanna fight?!"

"Incorrect." The giant lifted its fist. "You shall simply _die_."

For his size and weight, his movements were impressively fast. In a blink, the gigantic gloved fist slammed into the ground, sending shards of tile flying through the air. Goku, who stood on those tiles only a moment before, fell through the air from where he'd leaped to escape the strike.

While the two fought, she turned her attention away from the battle. For being a military base, the floors had been... _simple_. The ring of the tournament had a less open and easily maneuverable area than this. Supplies didn't seem to be in any obvious place, and the walls of the room seemed to lead only to outside, not to winding corridors and hallways as she'd usually expect from a tower.

As she walked a circle around the room, a piercing scream from Goku immediately arrested her attention. Somehow (she really didn't know how), the soldier had clamped his hands around Goku's small form and begun to squeeze, attempting to crush the life out of him. Despite her claim, as soon as she saw the danger, she tensed, and readied herself to leap in.

The concern was, ultimately, unnecessary. With a shout of supreme effort, the small boy prized the oversized hands apart, and shoved himself free of their grip. His expression was more than a little peeved when he glared up at the giant. "That _hurt_! Now I'm really gonna beat you up!"

He dashed forward, and than lunged into the air, springing himself forward on his tail. His foot caught the large man square in his chest, and the brute slid, then flew backward through the air. As his body collided with the far wall, the crash that rang out through the room was almost deafening.

"Yeah!" Goku shouted, fist clenched. "Take that!"

"Not...necessary." The figure stumbled to its feet, and slowly, determinedly, straightened itself again. " _You_ will 'take....that'."

She frowned, crossing her arms. It didn't take a genius to be able to tell just how much force Goku had connected with, let alone how much the man had collided into the wall with. Standing again so quickly, so easily, and without any apparent sign of strain or actual damage...

The guy was more impressive than everyone they'd seen at the tower so far put together. Goku leaped into the air, flying at the man with a kick. "Goku _don't_ \--!"

Lightning fast, the huge fist lanced out again, and sent Goku slamming into the far wall. The small boy hung there for a moment, and then fell to the ground with a soft thump. " _Goku_!" She sprinted toward the small form of the boy. Perhaps it had been a mistake to allow him to fight a stranger before she'd had a chance to evaluate its strength, no matter how excited he was to fight.

She rolled under a wide swing as she ran, and then kicked up into the air, heel colliding with the man's forearm with a resounding _crack_. The huge being stumbled backward, struggling to remain on its feet, and its arm hung limp from the point of contact, split fully in half, hanging by skin alone.

Despite her concern for Goku, she froze, staring at the broken arm. Blood and bone and severed muscle were commonplace, she'd seen them almost constantly in the medical tent during the war. The sparking metal and hanging cords that spilled out of his arm...were anything but normal. At all.

"W...what..."

The creature (surely not a human) stared down at its arm, and then snapped it free before _flinging it at her_. She jumped backward and slid along the ground, as the heavy arm buried itself into the floor.

"Goku..." She turned her gaze to the small child lying on the floor, bruised and dazed.

As she reached out toward him, summoning up chakra to heal him of whatever concussion or broken bones he'd suffered, he blinked and shook his head, before hopping back up to his feet. "... _Hey_!" He frowned, looking between she and the approaching beast. " _You attacked him didn't you?_ No fair, I'm fighting him!"

"Incorrect." The man leaned forward, "You are both about to _die_ _._ " His jaw fell open, much wider than should be possible, and a brilliant, fiery flash exploded outward toward them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sgt Metal sure is insistent.


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Perhaps someone should have warned you before that Sergeant Metallic is no mere human." The voice from the floor before crackled through the air, sounding far more smug than last. "He lacks any of your weakness! Nothing you can do will stop or even slow him."

The wall and floor exploded, engulfing their forms in a powerful and fiery explosion. 

  
Goku squirmed and dropped out of her arms behind the nearby support pillar. The giant figure had, apparently, so far completely missed that his discarded arm had vanished from where he'd thrown it, replacing his two targets at the last moment. Instead, he simply droned on to himself about a successful mission.  
  
"Hey, I could have escaped on my own." Goku shoved her leg and frowned up at her for a moment, before his attention shifted back to the man who still stood looking out of the hole he'd made in the wall. _Again_. Another floor, another hole in the wall. By the time they were finished with this tower, it wouldn't be any warmer on the inside than it was on the outside.  
  
"I wonder what kind of move that was..." He frowned, leaning around her slightly to look at the man. "That must have been some kind of mouth Kamehameha."  
  
She blinked. "That's what the Kamehameha wave is like?" She couldn't clearly remember the one time she'd seen it before...but usually ki glowed more brilliantly than the fiery explosion that the creature (surely not a man...) shot out of its mouth.  
  
"Uh huh..." He nodded, then frowned up at her, pointing. "No more helping! You promised to let me fight him this time!"  
  
Clearly, he needed to learn the values of teamwork. She sighed, and gestured over her shoulder. "Don't get killed and I won't need to interfere."  
  
"I won't! If he wants to use Kamehameha, then I will too. Watch!"  
  
Goku jumped out from hiding and waved his arm excitedly. "Hey! Over here!"  
  
The tall humanoid turned its head toward him, expression slowly shifting from neutral to surprise. Despite whatever attack was undoubtedly on the way, her gaze pulled back to Goku. Kamehameha was the primary reason she'd wanted the old man's teaching, and he'd refused to give her the secret of it until she mastered control of ki. If somehow Goku had learned it, then at least she could get a close up look at it this way.  
  
Goku bent his knees slightly and turned, gathering his hands at his hips. " _My turn_! Ka... _me_..."   
  
Light sparked and then began to glow between his hands. " _Ha..._ "  
  
The bizarre man gave an unnatural roar, and then charged toward Goku, hand outstretched.  
  
" _Me_ "  
  
One huge hand reached out toward the tiny figure of Goku, dwarfing his head and blocking out the light filtering into the room by the broken wall. " _HA!_ "  
  
Goku's arms snapped outward in front of him, hands still clasped together by their palms, and an intense white-blue beam of...ki shot outward. The giant figure and its remaining arm vanished entirely into the light, roar of anger transforming into something that might have been a scream of shock instead.  
  
As the light faded and the dust began to clear, a gigantic fist shot through the air. At her.  
  
Well...more likely, it had been aimed at Goku and simply missed. She tensed, calculating whether to dodge or to knock it back where it came from...and then Goku leaped into the air and kicked it as it passed. The huge fist spiraled away and crashed into a nearby wall instead, completely missing either mark. "No fair attacking someone else! _I'm_ -...."  
  
He trailed off, as the strange creature stumbled out of the cloud of debris and smoke caused by the previous Kamehameha. Armless, dragging a broken leg...and without a head. It sparked and sizzled, and Goku recoiled in shock, words apparently lost.  
  
" _Perhaps someone should have warned you before that Sergeant M_ _etallic is no mere human."_  The voice from the floor before crackled through the air, sounding far more smug than last. " _He lacks any of your weakness! Nothing you can do will stop or even slow him."  
  
_ Unaffected by the voice, Goku charged ahead, and propelled himself into the air by his tail. As his opponent now lacked a head or arms, the attempt was actually successful this time, colliding with the beast's giant chest. Boots skidded across the floor, and he vanished into the gloom of the far side of the room again. Predictably, a moment later, heavy thuds echoed through the darkness.  
  
" _This will be is as far as you go, intruders_."  
  
Goku charged ahead, drawing his red staff. "Power pole _extend_!"  
  
" _You see, no matter what you do, you cannot escape or overcome Sergeant Metallic's durability._ "  
  
As the giant creature reappeared, the red staff swung through the air, colliding with Metallic. The beast stumbled and slid back into the darkness with a crash and loud whirring. A moment later, it reappeared, pulling itself across the room by its half arms. _  
  
"He cannot be bargained with or reasoned with, he is incapable of feeling pity, remorse, or even fear"  
  
_ Again, showing...remarkable determination, the creature struggled to its feet, and marched toward Goku, who crouched down again, readying himself for another attack.. _.  
  
"He absolutely will not stop, ever, until--"  
  
_Something sparked and popped loudly from the top of what should have been its neck. The giant creature shuddered, hissed....and then fell backward onto the ground with a crash, unmoving.  
  
The disembodied narrator of the room said not another word.  
  
She shoved away from the support beam, and walked across the cracked and damaged floor toward where the behemoth lay. Goku glanced between she and it uncertainly. "Uh...is it....?"  
  
"I'll check." She clenched her fist, summoned chakra, and punched through the center of its chest, crushing it inward. Sparks flew into the air for a moment or two, and then the constant soft whirr of the room finally silenced. She nodded, and glanced over at her small figure. "It's stopped."  
  
He frowned, expression a mask of worry and concern. "Did you...you didn't _kill it_ did you?"  
  
She shook her head and planted her hands on her hips. "I think it was some kind of puppet to begin with."  
  
"A puppet?"  
  
"A human shaped tool someone else controls. They're never alive to begin with." Except when they controlled themselves. Or human shells are used as puppets. But that wasn't likely to be the case at all.  
  
Probably.  
  
She shook her head slightly. "Come on. Next floor."  
  
He nodded quickly., and turned to sprint up the nearby (slightly damaged from the fight) stairs "Right!"  
  
She brushed her clothes free of the debris of the fight, and followed after him. Her longer legs allowed her to walk at a more relaxed pace and still keep up with him, and that allowed her to think a little as they made their way up the steps. Ki really was a simplistic thing to use, if what she'd seen from Goku were an accurate read of the technique. She didn't have a dojutsu to be sure...but he didn't appear to use any hand signs, simply summoning his ki and directing it in the fashion he wished.  
  
To handle chakra that way, no need for calculated techniques or concealing hand seals, would be extremely useful. Even if she relied primarily on medical chakra techniques and taijutsu, there were others like Sasuke who used ninjutsu, Of course, worrying about how to use that brilliant beam of pure chakra was a waste without first being able to manipulate ki in any reliable manner.  
  
"Ooh..." Goku halted at the top of the steps and looked around the floor in awe. A moment later, she made it to the top of the staircase as well, and....it was indeed _very_ different from the other floors they'd seen so far. Somehow, they'd managed to turn the stone floor into something that could sustain plant life (even _trees_ ) and put forth the effort of maintaining an entire floor worth of grass and trees unsuited for the outdoors climate.   
  
It'd be a shame to rip a hole through this floor.  
  
"Weird..." Goku wandered into the room, eyes on the tops of the trees. "It's like they put outside inside..."  
  
She scanned the treeline as she followed after him, boots crunching softly in the grass. "An odd choice for a migrant military force..."  
  
She sensed the stir in the air before she saw the attack, and sprinted forward, lifting Goku off of his feet once more. A rain of kunai scattered across the ground where she'd been standing. She glanced over her shoulder briefly, and then scanned the leaves in the area in the direction where the attack must have come from.  
  
"Goku..."  
  
"Yeah?" He looked up at her from under her arm.  
  
"This one's mine." if it was anything as durable and determined as the creature below, she wasn't about to match Goku up against something that had the skill of a shinobi. He didn't possess the sort of skills to be able to deal with even _chuunin_ level strategies. Admittedly, he could probably deal with the average chuunin...but the one on the floor below was much above those in strength and speed.. No matter how much he wanted to fight after waiting around a month in Bulma's house, she wouldn't allow him to risk himself.  
  
Masculine laughter echoed off of the walls, masterfully deflected from wherever the source came from. " _Yours_? You fools! There's never been anyone to so much as _see_ me, let alone 'claim' me! You should have turned around when you survived by fluke before. Perhaps then you might have been able to see the face of your killer one day."  
  
As laughter rang out again, she let Goku drop to the ground. "Stay out of the way."  
  
He huffed and stuck his tongue out. "I know how to give people _turns_!"  
  
Ah-- _there_. As Goku marched back to the top of the stairs, she sprinted toward the figure in the trees, barely visible due to the light pouring in from a window on the opposite wall. Shiruken flew through the air, and she simply knocked away the one in her path with a kunai of her own. A moment later, her fist crunched through the branch the purple-clad ninja crouched on.  
  
His scream was quite impressive. Crashing onto his back instead of his feet wasn't.  
  
She dropped to the grass next to him, and he scrambled backward, eyes wide. "Th...that was lucky! I hope you feel honored, even if you'd only found me on a _fluke_!" He stumbled to his feet once he was a few feet away from her.  
  
:"Maybe I should have traded with Goku." She walked after him, as he backpedaled through the forest. "If the rest of your skills are as poor as your reflexes, I don't think you'd have been any trouble for him after all."  
  
He dug out a small round thing from his belt and tossed it at the ground. She flicked her wrist, and a senbon knocked the device away. A cloud of smoke exploded in the distance. So...it must have been a primitive form of a smoke bomb, not really any threat. The tall man turned on his heel and sprinted away. "Y-You won't find me a second time!"  
  
She doubted that, but she didn't really have the patience to wait and see.   
  
With a quick burst of speed, she jumped ahead of the man, and struck him upside the head. Unsurprisingly, he didn't make the barest attempt to deflect or dodge her. She didn't even bother to watch him crash through the nearest tree. Apparently, the giant creature in the floor below had been a fluke.  
  
She sprinted back to where Goku stood, and settled her hand on her hip. "He wasn't that impressive."  
  
"Oh. Guess it's a good thing it was your turn, then!" He laced his fingers behind his head and grinned, before heading toward the other stairs. "Mine's next!"  
  
As she started after him, another rain of kunai shot through the grass.  
  
"And just where do you two think you are going?" The voice echoed across the room again, followed by that same laugh.  
  
She frowned, looking across the treeline again. He shouldn't have gotten back up again for a long time, if _ever_. Not with the lack of skill he'd displayed so far. How the _hell_ could he be back? It couldn't have been an illusion. Had he simply been faking his weakness? But if so...exactly what advantage had it given him?  
  
"As I said, you _fools_ , there is no one who has ever even seen my face! Now that playtime is over, it's time to _cut you down_!"


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Before now, it would have only been a matter of time before she tired out her opponent, or at least figured out what trick he was using. Now...she didn't have that kind of time.

She frowned, staring at the trees again. It still didn't make very much sense: if he was faking his weakness, what had been the point? Demoralizing her? If that was the case, he wasn't as good as he thought he was: she wasn't about to be scared off so easily.

Or...he was so strong that it didn't matter.

If it was the last, she couldn't afford to hold back when Goku was a potential hostage. "Goku. Don't move."

She kicked off of the ground, flickering into the trees. When she'd moved, she hadn't been sure where her enemy was. As soon as she appeared in the trees, though, the figure of her attacker stumbled, and jumped away through the trees.

Again, despite surviving her previous attack, he moved at the speed of an inexperienced genin. Barely faster than a civilian, in fact. It took only hopping across two branches to catch up to him. Chakra gathered in her fist, and she crashed down on him.

Once again, he put up no sign of resistance, slamming into the ground and then lying still.

She hesitated for a few moments, waiting this time for a clone to dispel. Nothing happened.

Just as she turned to leave, a shiruken flew at her from another point in the forest. She knocked the weapon away with a kunai, and immediately spun back toward the prone form of the ninja on the ground.

...It remained.

"What...?"

"You may as well give up now!" The voice cackled through the trees in the distance. "No matter how many times you defeat me, I'll simply rise again stronger! I have complete control of this floor!"

A leaf split, and she twisted backward at the last moment just to evade a dart of some sort from the left, far from where the last shiruken (and voice) had come. Two kunai struck the ground, only barely missing her position, from the proper direction.

"Your only choice is to run or to _die_!" Cackling rang across the air, echoing off of what seemed to be every surface of the floor.

She clasped her hands together and quickly spiked her chakra. " _Release_!"

...Nothing. She didn't even feel any resistance or intruder on her network at all, let alone something that would have seized it in a genjutsu.

Stone grinding against stone rang throughout the air, followed by an alarmed shout from Goku. She raced across the grass, knocking away a rain of shiruken as she went. "Goku!"

When she broke free of the trees again, Goku stood where he had when she left, looking down at the stairs they'd come from. She followed his gaze...and found the top-most stair had elongated, blocking off the passage to the lower floor.

The voice from the other floors suddenly spoke up. " _You should have taken the opportunity to flee that you were given. Now, you've run out of chances!_ "

High above on the ceiling trap doors fell open, and a hail of large black shapes fell to the ground. One crashed to the ground between she and Goku. He jumped out of the way in the opposite direction she moved. Whiteish-blue smoke shout out in all directions on impact. Around them, the other packages fell to the ground as well, spreading the slow-moving cloud across the ground as they went. Wisps of smoke curled up her legs to her thighs, and engulfed most of Goku's body.

Laughter rang out across the room once again. "Now that this floor has been sealed, you'll have no choice but to breathe in Red Ribbon Army's special toxin! Consider it mercy that your death will be less painful than what I would have given you!"

She grit her teeth. If this were her dimension, if this were home, it would be easy to figure out what poison they were using, and then find an antidote to it. Here, even if she had the resources available to make one, she wouldn't know anything about the poison or the antidote.

It wasn't likely they could make something that mitotic regeneration couldn't handle. Even if she shared her regenerative abilities with Goku, though...his body was so small that he might die before she could help him.

"This is cheating!" Goku shouted, waving off the smoke...causing it to stir up into his face all the more.

" _Fool_! A true ninja uses any tactic to defeat his enemies! With my antidote, I am immune to this toxin, but the two of you will die no matter what you attempt to do!" Laughter again seemed to ring from every direction. "Truly, I am _invincible_!"

Goku coughed, and then his expression brightened. "I know!" That strange tail of his lifted into the air, and then began to spin behind him in a manner much like the thing on Roshi's strange boat had done. The gas surrounding them began to dispel, chased away to the edge of the wall. "And this! _Ha_!" He pulled out his red staff again, and begun to spin it in front of him.

Clicks echoed through the room, and more panels opened above, dropping two more volleys of the toxin bombs.

" _How long can you keep up your little trick before you tire?_ "

She leaped forward and knocked away a wave of kunai aimed at the small boy.

The voice from the trees chimed in with the other disembodied voice. "And how will you defend yourself while you try to _breathe_?"

...Of course. Before now, it would have only been a matter of time before she tired out her opponent, or at least figured out what trick he was using. Now...she didn't have that kind of time. Even if she used shadow clones so that she could defend Goku from attacks while she fought the ninja, there was no telling how long Goku's endurance could last. Or how much more of the toxin they could fill the room with.

 _Damn_...

If she collapsed the floor, she'd take the support pillars with it. There was a chance the rest of the tower would fall on their heads after she did. Whether or not they could survive it, there were multiple reasons _not_ to collapse the tower into pieces before they were done searching it.

That really only left one _good_ option.

She turned on her heel and charged toward the outer wall of the tower. Using her momentum and a spike of chakra, she jumped into the air and swung her leg at the red-stone wall. "Try... _this_! _Chyah!_ "

The sturdy barrier exploded outward in a rain of jagged shards and oddly shaped pebbles, and the poisonous smoke billowed outward into the freezing air.

No matter how much the army tried to fill the room with, as long as they stood near this side of the tower, they wouldn't be in very much danger.

"Now..." She turned back toward the forest, gripping her hand into a fist. "Where were we? Being good ninja? I guess I should start by knocking down all the trees you're using to hide."

Goku jumped backward as another set of kunai shot at him. " _Hey_! Don't attack me, that's not fair!"

"Don't you get it?" The voice yelled out...from a man standing not far away in a tree, apparently attempting to hide behind it. Poorly. "You've only managed to prolong your death, choosing a far more painful option than the one I mercifully gave you!"

So far...he'd refused to make head-on attacks, or even truly dangerous ones. Every time she found him (easily), she defeated him without effort. Every time, he seemed unskilled. Yet, he kept reappearing. Perhaps she could have believed he had a strange, dangerous skill that needed to be overcome.

The ceiling trap, however, led her to believe something else entirely. Well, that, and his comment to Goku.

Hiding behind his tricks and traps, he was little more than an especially arrogant genin. Given his lack of jutsu other than whatever he was using to project himself, chuunin seemed too generous.

She jumped to the tree where he hid, and punched through its trunk. As she expected, the person in it simply flailed and screamed as it fell, rather than leaping out of danger. As he crashed to the ground, she pounced on him.

Unsurprisingly, the moment she knocked that one unconscious, she saw him sprinting away in the distance. Even less of a surprise: he made no actual attempt to deflect the kunai she threw, and collapsed with a pained shout.

"That looks like it hurts." She eyed the area, searching for the next sign of movement. "How long do you want me to _keep this up_?"

For a few moments, the only sound that passed through the room was the howling wind from the open wall.

Finally, the purple clad ninja appeared in front of her, hands outstretched. "Okay, okay! I give! If you stop...I-I'll take you to this tower's secret! If you kill me, you'll never be able to find it!"

"Secret?" Goku ran up to where she stood, expression bright and interested. She could hardly blame him...knowing him, having to stand and wait on the sidelines so long without even a real battle to watch had to be boring. A secret probably sounded incredibly exciting.

More importantly, there was the _slight_ possibility the 'secret' might be the dragonball. Maybe, If they had it.

She crossed her arms. "Why should we believe you?"

"W-well...what's the harm? If I'm lying, surely you'll kill me. And the two of you are so strong, you've proven I can't hurt you!"

If she weren't so confident of his ineptitude, she'd be concerned enough of the obvious trap to ignore his offer. But...there was _just enough_ chance that the secret was real, despite the trap, to humor his attempt anyway. So far, every single attempt he'd made on their lives wasn't any real danger, anyway. At least if they left the floor it was unlikely he could pull off his trick so easily anymore. Whatever it was, the way the floor was structured to block off vision and confuse people inside it no doubt played a large part.

She smiled, and gestured toward the upper stairs. "Well in that case, I'm sure there's no reason to disbelieve you at all."

Goku glanced up at her briefly, and then nodded. "Yeah, I wanna see what this secret is, too!"

"Well...just wait." The man smiled and clasped his hands together, before starting toward the stairs. "You won't _believe your eyes_."

...So _definitely_ a trap.

When they climbed the stairs, the roof that had shut to seal them in slid open easily (as accommodating as _any_ military would behave toward a traitor). As she'd guessed, the floor above looked like the others before, excluding the one they'd just left. Dark, empty, stone. In the distance, a tall cell stood, locked tightly shut.

It was a bit of a surprise to her that he _didn't_ immediately run over there and release whatever beast they had trapped inside. Instead, he walked the other direction, gesturing for them to follow. "It's just over here. There's a secret panel on this wall, you'd never find it if you didn't know where to look."

She squinted at his back as they walked. Could it be he planned to distract them with something while he quietly opened the doors behind them? Surely _not_.

"Right here." He pointed at the wall. Goku ran up to it and reached up to place his hand against it, curious. She stayed in place, a step behind Goku, watching the would-be ninja instead.

He shook his head when Goku looked up at him in confusion. "No, it's not there. It's _here_."

He shoved a slightly misaligned brick into the wall nearby. It really wasn't all that well hidden, for an undetectable panel. Or even switch, really. When the stone shifted in, it knocked its neighbor violently out into the sky. Destabilized, the rest of that section of the wall crumbled and collapsed in front of them, plummeting to the snow below.

She turned just in time to see the oversized dead-weight slam into them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Murasaki's true power has got to be being so pathetic 90% of the time people underestimate him and just let him do as he pleases.
> 
> (what's that you say, the murder hole and people-catapult traps didn't exist in dragonball?
> 
> ...
> 
> well...
> 
> they just didn't use them, okay. Murasaki spent almost the entire fight fooling around, gettin' trolled by Goku. Kid Goku derails things pretty well.)


	24. Chapter 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "So...did he count as two turns?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are things I want to happen in the future of the fic, but they may be sad dreams that disappear because of butterflies. Much like Sakura vs Oozaru in the World Tournament. Maybe I'll make a side fic of what-if one shots for moments that could have happened but didn't.

She didn't scream, but in fairness she couldn't have if she wanted to. She'd taken the brunt of the force from the heavy weight right in her diaphragm. Goku did scream though. The energy that passed through her knocked him much further out from Muscle Tower. The difference was somewhat immaterial, given even she was too far to reach the tower wall.

For a moment, she glimpsed the triumphantly smirking face of the ninja behind the dead weight, and then she plummeted out of sight.

" _Nimbus!"_ She craned her head toward him as he shouted in something of an understandable panic. " _Please_ , help me!"

Five tall floors was far to fall. She'd probably survive if she activated her regeneration, but he was too far out of reach to grab, and _much_ smaller than her. Five floors wasn't very far to fall waiting on something to catch them.

A golden blur sped into view over one of the nearby hills. From what she could tell (and her judgment was admittedly not the best at that moment), it moved more quickly than she'd ever seen it fly before. He crashed onto the cloud with a grunt, and the cloud dipped slightly to compensate for his landing.

"Sakura!" The cloud swooped down toward her, and he pulled out that staff of his again. "Power pole, _extend_! Quickly!"

She reached up as it fell toward her, and clasped to the bottom of it with one chakra-charged hand. She winced as her body swung violently from side to side...but her feet hung a few feet away from the snow below. Healing the damage from the quick stop would be easier than healing the impact of a sudden one.

The nimbus slowly began to climb again as the pole shrank and pulled her back up. "Are you okay?"

She nodded and frowned, swinging herself onto the golden...entity, and rubbed her shoulder. "Are you, Goku?"

"Uh huh." He nodded, and turned his gaze up to the hole they'd fallen through. "He _cheats_ too much."

She bit her cheek in annoyance. "He does." It wasn't really that he _cheated_ , though. Whatever it was he was doing, they were all somehow tricks. Even the one in which he seemed to simply replicate himself every time she defeated him on that floor. The problem was...she kept letting him _do them_. She knew better than to underestimate her opponent, or to play around instead of accomplish the mission. She'd spent so long hiding her skills from that hermit in fear that he was some sort of spy that she'd started making a habit of _not_ using them when she should.

This would be the last time she did such a thing.

She stood as they approached the gap in the wall, pulling back her fist. the heavy stone they'd used to knock she and Goku out mostly blocked the way in. She'd start her comeback by fixing that.

" _Take this_!" She slammed her fist into the brick. Parts on the edges shattered and exploded outward. The inner section of the rock, reinforced by metal, managed to stay together. Instead, her punch caused it to flip back the way it came, and then smash through the wall above, spinning out through the air in a way not unlike they had.

The man stood in the middle of the room, halfway turned toward them, expression openly shocked.

Her knuckles cracked as she stepped over Goku to walk into the tower. She pressed one fist into her hand in front of herself and then the other, marching across the floor toward the man. "You know what...?"

"E-eh...?" He took a step back, as if to run, and she flickered across the room to him, grabbing him by his collar.

"You weren't wrong."

He struggled ineffectually against her grip, and then-as if only remembering right then-drew his sword.

She gave an angry scream and punched him in the face, releasing her grip as the blow contacted. He didn't even shout as he flew through the air and crashed into the metal cage on the other side of the room.

_This time_ , he didn't reappear somewhere else on the floor.

Goku wandered up next to her, frowning slightly. "So...did he count as two turns?"

She blinked, and glanced down at him. "Huh...?" Well...they _were_ on another floor. " _Um_."

On the other side of the room, metal creaked and scraped across stone.

... _Ah_.

"...I think he counts as one." She frowned into the gloom of the room. The question was...did this floor hold something dangerous like the third had, or would it be as easy to deal with as the second and fourth?

For a moment, Goku looked up at her in confusion, and then the heavy thumps of something against stone caught his ear. He immediately shifted to a defensive posture, and grinned off toward that mystery cell.

"Alright! I thought we wouldn't get another one on this floor!"

As with the third floor, the sound of heavy footsteps quickly led to the appearance of a huge, monstrous looking person. Wide eyes stared down at them, emotionless, as he approached them, and huge hands swung at his sides.

Goku crouched down slightly, and she took a step back. "Are you ready to fight me now?"

The man stopped moving and looked at him in silence for a moment, before finally speaking. "...No."

"Huh?" Goku blinked, and straightened slightly, staring up at the huge man. "What d'you mean you're not ready?"

"I will not fight you." The man stared at Goku, and then up at her. "You...oppose the Red Ribbon Army?"

She glanced between Goku, who also looked up at her, and the soft-spoken giant. "It seems so."

Goku nodded, more enthusiastic. "Yeah! We're gonna beat 'em all up!"

She didn't _particularly_ remember agreeing to that...but at the same time, a military group after a wish...probably needed to be uprooted before it was too late. Especially given the way they'd acted so far.

The giant stared down at his feet. "Fighting...is dangerous."

"But sometimes it's necessary!" Goku puffed out his chest.

"Is it...?" The man looked up at Goku, expression...concerned? Sad? Either way...it...reminded her of Naruto. Well, Goku reminded her of the Naruto she'd known when she was younger. This one...was starting to remind her of the hero who somehow managed to change the hearts and minds of everyone he touched, and save everyone in Konoha just by being _him_.

"I don't know."

Both of them looked up at her in surprise. The bigger one seemed to have a bit of hope in his gaze. Goku just...seemed surprised.

Well...she wasn't Naruto. She was pretty sure there were times that fighting really was the only option. But he'd probably say...something.

She crossed her arms and looked away, at the ground. "Maybe...maybe not. We won't know until we're there. Sometimes fighting's the _easiest_ way, though. Even if it's not the only way." She shrugged slightly, brushing away the memories that struggled to fill her consciousness and overwhelm her. "An old friend of mine would say that. But I'm not him. You can choose not to fight, if you don't want to...but you might die if you don't."

The man was quiet for a few moments, and Goku slowly looked between them.

"...I...do not want to fight." The man rumbled softly.

" _Then you will die, traitor!_ " And there was that disembodied voice again, the one that followed them from floor to floor.

"Oh yeah?!" Goku shouted up into the air. "Well, I won't let you hurt him even if you try!"

The voice was quiet for a surprisingly long amount of time, and when it spoke, there was a waver in it that she couldn't quite identify. " _If you plan to stop me, you'll need to find me first."_

The tall man was quiet for a moment, expression sad once more. "Attempting to protect me...would be dangerous."

"We don't care!" He glanced back at her. "Right?"

She nodded after a moment. So far, the danger might have been _real_ , but not...particularly... _steep_. "I'm not afraid of what I've seen from this army so far."

"So then...you are here to save the village elder?"

She looked to Goku again, whose expression was as confused as her own must have been.

The both of them spoke at the same time. "Village elder?"

The giant stared at them for a moment, and then shook his head. "It is...the old man that General White captured..."

The shop owner hadn't actually mentioned that. Though, it was possible she simply hadn't because they _had_ interrupted her a fair bit when she was speaking. But, that did explain the implied 'or else'. And made her all the more willing to take the army down.

But not the tower. It was a good thing after all she hadn't opted for that.

"...Do you know where he is?"

The man nodded. "I can show you the way."

Goku nodded, finally responding. "Okay! We'll rescue the village elder, too!"

He probably didn't need to make it sound like quite so much of an after thought.

"The next floor is confusing, so please follow me closely." The lumbering man turned around in place, and then slowly made his way toward the stairs. As they passed, she spared a glance into the cell (whose bars had been twisted and warped away from the cell itself by the impact of the ninja and...probably the strength of the large man ahead of her). It was some small reassurance to see the form of the would-be ninja still crumpled inside it, not mysteriously vanished and waiting somewhere else.

She'd really been starting to get sick of that one.

'Confusing' apparently meant 'labyrinth', as the floor above opened up into a maze. But...it wouldn't have been all that difficult. The floors were relatively small...and they were both rather good at smashing holes through the walls themselves.

"The both of you..." The large man spoke thoughtfully as he walked. "What...are your names?"

"I'm Goku! What's yours?" Unsurprisingly, he spoke before she had a chance to, voice energetic and curious.

"They called me Android number Eight."

Number eight? Was he some sort of test subject, then? It would explain his odd shape, and the earlier version of his' incredible strength (and...strangeness). It would also explain keeping him prisoner in the place that seemed to be his own home.

"...That's too much to remember." Goku huffed. "Can I just call you 'Eight'?"

The man looked over his shoulder briefly, and then nodded. "It...is okay."

She followed after the other two with a hand on her hip, glancing along the alternate paths as they walked. "My name's Sakura."

"Like cherries..." The man rumbled, barely audible. He pointed ahead, a moment later. "This is the stairs to the elder."

She walked up to them and glanced over at him. "Do you want to come with us? There might be more enemies up above."

The man, Eight, looked down at the ground for a few moments, and then finally nodded. "I will...follow you."

Perhaps it was due to being an enclosed corridor, rather than an open path where she could track her height by watching the floor below, but the stairs felt...unnaturally long. For one floor, it seemed as if they climbed far too many stairs. Perhaps they were made differently as well to discourage those who actually made it through the maze, and leave them disoriented?

Perhaps.

At the very top of the stairs stood a metal door. "Behind there is the command room. The village elder is trapped in there."

Goku huffed, cheeks puffing out. "I hope there's someone to fight in there. It's not fair that I didn't get another turn."

As the tall man swung the door inward and they stepped inside the room, a wide-shouldered man stood from a chair next to the floor's especially wide window. "How very kind of the three of you to come to _me_. I've been _waiting_."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We've had four chapters of action, I wonder what that means.
> 
> Maybe three and a half chapters.


	25. Chapter 25

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As she turned back toward him, a loud sound echoed off of the walls, and pain exploded in her chest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In hindsight, I definitely do not regret giving Sakura the ability to fly on Nimbus, because Goku seriously gets pissy with people who want to ride with him and need to hang on to his neck the whole trip (seriously, Bulma and Krillin are his besties and he makes such annoyed faces when they demand to go with him). One trouble averted!

She recognized his voice as the one who had been following them through the different floors. He didn't look particularly impressive, but he'd never sounded all that impressive, either. He backpedaled slightly, as if the console could protect him from them if he stood behind it. "The two of you are very impressive. With your strength and resourcefulness, the Red Ribbon Army could _use_ you if you wanted to join. Even as a child and a woman."

She clicked her tongue in annoyance, and started toward him. Just who exactly did he think would believe such an offer after he'd tried to kill them more than once? "I don't think so."

"Yeah!" Goku chimed in behind her. "We'd never want to help people like you!"

"General White!" So, that was his name. "Please stop doing all of these bad things and surrender!"

The man, whose expression had been wary at her approach, twisted to that of disgust when the larger one spoke. " _You_ , Traitor...do you think simply because I don't have the remote control to your detonator in my hand that you can speak to me like that? My offer was a show of the Red Ribbon Army's _generosity_. You should have taken it."

He lunged forward to one of the buttons in front of him. Her hand clasped over his wrist just as the button pressed in. Behind her, something clicked, and she heard Goku give a surprised scream. She turned just in time to see the floor where Goku and Eight had been standing close again.

" _Goku_!" Damn it, it was yet another _stupid_ trap. She'd tried to stop it this time, raced across the floor to interfere, but all it did was keep her away from Goku.

Behind her, something else clicked, a soft, sliding metal-on-metal sound.

As she turned back toward him, a loud sound echoed off of the walls, and pain exploded in her chest.

(*)

Everything hurt. Mostly it wasn't the fall that made it hurt, it was the surprisingly heavy body of Eight falling on _him_ that made it hurt.

" _Ow_." He winced as he worked a kink out of his back, and stared up at the ceiling above. It was a really long drop! The Power Pole could probably make it all the way back up to the top without too much trouble, but it was still a dirty trick to just drop the ground out from under people like that.

Really, this Red Ribbon Army just kept using dirty tricks over and over! It was starting to piss him off!

"Goku..." Eight looked down at him in concern, as if he didn't also fall just as far. (Almost!) "Are you hurt?"

"Nuh-uh." He shook his head quickly. Even if he was sore, he'd been hurt much more before.

The big man looked around the large room for a moment or two, before speaking again. "This...must be the fifth floor. There is no normal entrance to this floor...I always wondered what was on it."

"Huh?"

Fifth...he wasn't really any good at numbers. Even after old man Roshi taught him to count, just using them without warning like that was kind of confusing. How many floors were there? He pressed a finger to his other finger, a trick he'd learned in Kame House. There was that big empty room...then the one with people in it...

The sound of rattling stone broke through his concentration, and he looked up in surprise. Part of the wall was moving! "Ah! The wall's lifting up!"

"Be careful, Goku!" Eight shouted behind him. "I can see something behind it!"

He squinted through the dark room, under the lifting wall. There was definitely _some_ kind of sha...

The top of the wall vanished into the ceiling. A _really large_ thing stood on the other side. Big, bumpy...and with a really, really big mouth. And tongue.

He gasped. "A _monster_!"

Which meant...

_Which meant_!

He grinned without even really realizing it, gripping his hands into fists in front of himself in anticipation. _"I'm gonna get another turn after all_!"

(*)

The impact of whatever it was he'd used knocked her across the room onto the floor, and an arc of blood followed her path. In review, she'd heard that sound before, while they were outside and taking out those guards. It had been at a distance, but that must have been the same thing.

A quick review of her body told her some small metal object had cut through a lung, chipped a rib, and lodged itself somewhere in her liver. It _stung,_ and if she couldn't heal herself...it could have been a pretty dangerous injury. She resolved to figure out what the hell kind of tool he'd just used was...and then deal with how to nullify it as a threat in the future.

She coughed up a spatter of blood as the man pressed something else out of her sight, and then walked up to where she lay. His expression twisted with smug satisfaction as he looked down at her, small metal device in his hand, pointed down at her. "Now...don't you feel stupid? All of your tricks, all of that power you displayed, and it means nothing next to one little gun. It's a shame you didn't take my offer, but...maybe we didn't need you after all."

She glared up at him, and he tutted, waving the...gun, in the air. "Don't be such a sore loser. Even if you defeated one little tower, you'd never be able to conquer the Red Ribbon Army itself. Long before you ever succeeded we'd have the dragonballs, and then before you knew it, you'd think you'd _always_ been on her side..." he aimed the weapon at her face. "You should thank me. I'm giving you the one opportunity _not_ to work for us that you'll ever have."

As expected, a military power looking for a wish wasn't that creative at all. Still, it was good to know that for sure, before she tore down any more of their bases and crushed their forces entirely.

His finger curled inward, and she surged upward, fingers likewise curling. Her fist contacted with the weapon head on, and crushed it inward. As it flattened, it exploded backward, and he stumbled backward with a pained cry, one hand clasping to his face, and the other falling uselessly to his side, blood and bone hanging in a grotesque display even conventional medical jutsu would be unable to fix.

She straightened, and pressed her hand to the wound on her chest briefly, stimulating her natural flow of chakra and sealing the opening and then undoing all of the damage the device had done to her in his surprise attack. "What a waste of my time." She brushed herself off and glared over at him, who still crumpled over in pain from the backfire of his weapon. "If you're going to believe in a story like a wish granting dragon, try to think of something _worth_ wishing for, at least."

She batted his hand away from his badly injured face, and gripped his throat, raising her other fist in threat. "Now...bring Goku back, and tell me where you've put the Elder, and I'll make certain you don't bleed to death."

He coughed, squinting up at her. "The...th...console...yellow button."

She let him go, and turned toward the console. As records stood, so far these things had been traps. Something beneath her, where Goku would be, exploded. She didn't really have a choice but to try. Even if it was just a way to drop her into the floor below as well, she'd rather that than leave Goku on his own, considering the things these people did.

As she walked, she heard him shift and stumble to his feet. In the amount of pain he currently suffered, he probably didn't even think of attempting to do it quietly. In the amount of pain he currently suffered, she could almost forgive him for suffering delusions.

Which he clearly did.

" _Take this!_ "

His gun hurt.

His pathetic attempt at a punch might as well have been the impact of a wad of paper. But it really was the thought that counted. She grit her teeth and round on him, delivering a furious punch of her own. The very large man crashed into the far wall, and cracked the stone there.

Unsurprisingly, he collapsed soundlessly to the ground.

_Surprisingly_ , when she pressed the indicated button, the door really did open again. Slowly this time, and without immediately snapping shut again.

She immediately ran to the opening and crouched over it to get a look at it. " _Hey_!"

The explosion had apparently been one of the walls on the floor below, which had mostly collapsed. Eight stood staring at it in surprise, and Goku...stared up at some sort of gigantic creature that appeared to be frozen in front of him. After a moment, he blinked and looked up at her with a grin. "Sakura! Did you beat yours?"

Hers...?

She shook her head quickly and frowned down at him. "Did you _freeze_ yours?"

"It was an accident!" He pointed at the hole in the wall. "It bounced my Kamehameha off and broke the wall, and then I accidentally bounced off it and hit the wall, too. And then it stopped moving."

... _Bounced_ a Kamehameha? Exactly what had she _missed_? It sounded far more interesting than listening to that idiot general. She held a hand down toward him. "Get up here. We still have to find the Elder."

Goku gestured for Eight to come closer to him, and set the power pole on the ground in front of him. "That guy wouldn't tell you where he is?"

"He wasn't cooperative."

Goku sped up to where she held out her hand, and pulled himself out of the hole. A moment later, he retracted the pole much as he'd had when she'd been holding onto it, and pulled the giant man up to the top floor as well.

"I think I know where he is..." Eight rumbled, looking off toward the door they'd originally came from.

"Really?" Goku perked up, looking up at the larger man. "That's great! Then we can go and get him right away!"

" _I don't think so._ "

The three of them turned as one toward the voice. The general stood, rather _leaned_ against that console, another gun in an unsteady hand. His twisted face stretched into a grin that had an edge of madness to it, and fire exploded from it. For a brief instant, she expected it to strike her again, perhaps in a more vital spot.

Goku made a strained cry, and crashed back down through the trap door.

" _Goku_!" Both she and Eight both screamed it at the same time, and both of their attempts to reach out and grab his falling form barely missed. He plummeted to the ground, and shattered the frozen statue of the creature, bouncing and rolling off of walls and then along the floor.

When he finally came to a rest...his body didn't move at all. He _was_ so much smaller than her, much younger, his body hadn't been trained to deal with the things she had. He didn't have medical jutsu to heal himself with...

The man's wheezing laughter filled the room. "No matter how freakish you two might be, the power in this gun is unbeatable!" His shaky hand turned toward her. "Now... _now_...it's you _next_...!"

" _Stop hurting people_!" Eight boomed, hands gripped into fists.

" _Shut up_!" The general screamed in a frenzied voice. " _Shut up_ , you _traitor_! You...you...pathetic half-wit of a failure, after her, I'll destroy you as well! _You'll all die_!"

Again, he fired. This time, she immediately moved to dodge...but it was too late. Eight stepped in the way instead, taking the impact as if it were...very little at all. If she weren't so worried about Goku below, she'd be pretty impressed by that.

"You..." The giant man growled in anger, and began to advance on the other. " _Will stop hurting my friends_!"

"Shut up! _Shut up_! Just _die!_ _Die_!" The gun clicked several times as he shouted.

He fell silent for a moment and then screamed, just as Eight's gigantic fist contacted with him, and sent him crashing out through the wall.

But those were things that she had to extrapolate from sound. As soon as she realized the weapon was unable to do any further harm, she'd turned and jumped down to the floor where Goku was. Medical attention was, after all, her first priority. She'd been trained well.

"Goku..." She collapsed to her knees and immediately summoned chakra, scanning him for an entrance wound, and for the damage the weapon must have done to his body.

She blinked, and stared down at him in surprise.

There wasn't a wound at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A Goku POV!
> 
> And also, the first real sign of where Ninja abilities fall behind dragonball abilities. Ninja are more about avoiding and shrugging off injuries. Ki-infused bodies, however, are impervious to them.
> 
> But, we know it's not Goku himself that is. It's the ki technique he uses.


	26. Chapter 26

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She...stared down at him. Exactly how did he manage not to be harmed at all? Maybe if she'd been prepared for it she could have ensured it did minimal damage, but those were skills much beyond his, and as far as she could tell, he couldn't have known it would happen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't update for a few days because ...Kumoricon. As apology, have art. https://40.media.tumblr.com/9fbf74e34c70976ba953f03e200a50cd/tumblr_nucwa6n7481srolsro1_540.png

He groaned after a moment, apparently roused by her presence, and rubbed at his head. " _Oww_...that really hurt..."

She...stared down at him. Exactly how did he manage not to be harmed at all? Maybe if _she'd_ been prepared for it she could have ensured it did minimal damage, but those were skills much beyond his, and as far as she could tell, he couldn't have known it would happen.

"Goku..."

He blinked up at her with a dazed expression. "I'm getting really hungry after that fight...can we go eat after the bad guy is gone?"

It _had_ been a fair amount of time since either of them had eaten. That wasn't really the most pressing matter at that moment, though. Unless he really was, somehow, completely unaffected by the gun. But...how would that be? Just what part of that training had toughened up his body to that level?

If she weren't about to leave, she'd want to find answers from that old man about it.

She shook her head quickly and stood, holding out a hand to him. "Yeah...soon, anyway. He's gone now, but we've still got the village elder and the dragonball to find first, right?"

"Oh..." He sighed, and pushed up to his feet, mumbling to himself. "I'd rather eat the food first..."

Still, he had the energy to jump back up to the room, and she followed after him, looking around for their large companion. He stood at...another hole in the wall. Well, at least it had nothing to do with _them_ this time.

"Do you know where the village elder is?"

The big man slowly turned away from the wall toward them, and then nodded. "I...think so..."

When she'd glanced it from the floor, she'd thought the cell next to the door might have been what held the elder...but on closer inspection, as they passed it by, there wasn't actually anything in there. Interesting.

"It is...here." He gestured at a door without a knob. "But...I do not know the combination to open it."

"Well, that's easy." She took a step forward, and Goku spoke up.

"Hey, I could open it, too!"

She glanced over her shoulder at the small boy, who still looked no worse for wear after the gun attack than before. He _did_ look a little fatigued, though. Bouncing into a wall and falling down a floor twice probably did that. And using two kamehameha waves might have sapped him of energy, too.

"Do you want to do it and make yourself more hungry than you already are?"

He hesitated, and then frowned. "I...guess not."

The door was much easier to punch through than the wall had been, being made of much flimsier metal than the brick-stone of the outer tower walls. It was also considerably easier to bust through than the front door had been. Really, it wasn't that well made for a prison cell.

The man inside gave a startled yell when the door burst inward from the middle, and turned around toward them, eyes wide. He was presumably the village elder, given his clearly advanced age. Nothing about him looked the least bit dangerous: small eyes were barely visible through the thick lenses of his glasses, his limbs were spindly and undersized for his clothes, his hair - what hair he still had - was wispy and white and standing out at odd angles, and he appeared to be missing much of his teeth when he spoke.

"Wh-who's there?!"

Goku appeared around her leg. "Are you the village elder?"

He ruffled his hair. "I'm the _chief..._ I don't know if I'd like to be called 'elder'. I'm not as old as I look, you know!"

She doubted that. But that wasn't the point. "The _chief_?" Well. No wonder the village was under the grip of the military force without any visible signs of battle in the village or the tower.

The man pulled himself up to stand as tall as he could. "Yes. I am. _Not_ just an elder, _the_ chief. A...and..." he shrank down a bit more then. "You...you haven't told me why you're here yet. Or...are you...Red Ribbon Army?"

She waved her hand. "No."

"We beat all those up!" Goku chipped in, before gesturing over his shoulder. "Except for Eight, but he wanted to join us."

"...Hello." The big man rumbled behind them.

The old man looked...somewhat wary about all three of them. She couldn't really say she was surprised. Everyone in this dimension other than Goku seemed determined to be wary for _some_ reason. "W-well then...then...I'm free to go?"

She nodded. "If you want to. We have something more to do here."

"Uh?" Goku glanced up at her, as if the fall (or his hunger) was addling his memories a bit.

"The dragonball?" She arched an eyebrow down at him.

" _Oh_! Right!" He nodded and straightened, immediately turning to dig the radar out of his pocket bag.

" _Dragonball_?" The old man spoke up suddenly. "You two want the dragonballs _too?_ "

Eight turned toward them with a frown. "Do you...want to do bad things with the dragonballs?"

Goku spoke before she could. "No! Sakura just wants to use them to get back home, because she comes from somewhere so far away she can't get back on her own."

The two men stared at her. The bigger one seemed to simply be considering Goku's words, and the old one seemed suspicious. As was usual from people she'd encountered in this dimension so far. Maybe it was a product of whatever connection they had with Kaguya.

She placed a hand on her hip. "The Red Ribbon Army plans to use the dragonballs to wish for world domination. The best way to keep them from doing that before we stop them without endangering innocent people who hide them is to collect them ourselves and make the army come to _us_."

"That...is true..." The old man muttered to himself.

"That sounds...dangerous." Eight frowned down at the ground for a few moments. "I should come with?"

"Yeah!" Goku lifted his hands. "We can all go together!"

"You already had to fight someone once. If you come with us, you'll need to fight a lot more. Sometimes you might need to fight enemies all on your own."

The large man blinked, and then shook his head. "I...I don't like fighting. But I don't know where I will go."

The old man, who had been quietly considering the three of them during their conversation spoke up again, voice somewhat hesitant. "Well, you did help save the village from the Red Ribbon army, and rescue me. If need be, you can stay in the village with us."

Eight looked over at the old man in surprise. "Really? Then...I think that I will."

"Aww..." Goku frowned, and drooped down in disappointment. "Well, at least you have a place you can stay."

The large man nodded, then, after a moment of hesitation, dug around in his pocket and withdrew a golden glowing orb. In his hand, it looked barely bigger than a smoke bomb.

"A dragonball!" Goku gasped and sprinted forward a couple of steps. "Eight, when did you find it?"

"It was in the snow outside one day...but the General said he would kill the village when he found the dragonball, so I decided to hide it instead."

The room fell silent for a moment, and then the old man patted Eight's arm. "On second thought, I like you a _lot_! You can stay with me if you want! You're a really good person!"

A shy smile curled along Eight's face and he ducked his head. "Thank you..." He held out the dragonball to Goku, who carefully collected it and returned next to her side.

"See, this is a dragonball." Goku held it up to her.

When she held it in her hand, the light that faintly glowed from it made her expect it to be a little warm, but it was simply as cool as the room. It did give off a very slight vibration, though, like it was emitting a silent hum of some sort. The orange color swirled slightly in the ball, and the red star in the center seemed to be at once in the very middle and on the outer edge of it. It felt a little heavier than its size should be, and perfectly smooth.

Honestly, looking at it, it was a little mesmerizing...and more than a little fascinating. Was it some sort of crystallized chakra?

She frowned slightly, clasping her fingers around it. Just what exactly were they supposed to be summoning, other than a 'dragon'? Was it some kind of tailed beast of this world? Or was it possible that this gathering chakra could actually summon Kaguya? Her heart skipped, and she drew in a breath.

As dangerous as that would be...it would bring Naruto and Sasuke, too. She'd have a way to get back where she belonged, as long as they all left before Kaguya could do any damage to this world.

Maybe she needed to summon it at a distance, to ensure Goku wouldn't be pulled into things and harmed.

"Sakura?" Goku's voice broke into her thoughts.

"Hm?" She glanced up. Eight and the elder...chief, had vanished from the room, leaving only herself and Goku. Had she been lost in thought very long? It hadn't felt like it.

"I'm _really_ hungry now."

She blinked, and then nodded. "Right. Let's get moving. We'll probably pass some places with food on the way to the next dragonball." Also, hopefully something to pay for that food with as well. Doing missions like liberating villages from tyrannical military forces for free didn't do much for the pocketbook.

He dug around in his pockets, and then pulled out the radar device. "...Aw no." He grimaced, and turned the device toward her. Probably from the impact of one of his falls from the uppermost floor, the glass on the front of it was completely shattered and broken inward. He pressed the button on the top...but all that it did was spark.

"...Ah."

Well. A fragile device like that wasn't the best design for a dangerous mission like collecting wish granting orbs.

He sighed. "I guess we'll have to go back to Bulma's and get it fixed again."

She rubbed at the back of her head, tugging at the too-long hair there. "If we need to do that every time we find one, that's going to slow us down..."

"Well, I'll be more careful next time!" He nodded. "And the other ones are probably nowhere near the Red Ribbon Army anyway."

She frowned, as they started back out of the room, toward the convenient opening in the wall, down the stairs from the actual door to the level, she spotted their two companions already trudging out of sight. "They must not have had something like that..." she gestured down at the device in his hand. "If they did, they would have figured out that Eight had it by now. But...to build something like this, they must have been confident the dragonball was _somewhere_ around here. How could they have known?"

"Uh?" Goku glanced up at her, and then scratched at his hair, thoughtful. "...Huh. Maybe they made a really good guess?"

She doubted that, though.

"Nimbus!" He shouted through the opening in the wall. "Let's go back to Bulma's! Come on!"

She frowned to herself as she settled onto the golden cloud and stared down at the gold-orange orb in her hand. The concept that the army had some sort of less precise method of determining the general vicinity of dragonballs wasn't a pleasant one: it meant they'd need to be careful of more soldiers every time they looked for a dragonball, and it meant they'd probably eventually be hunted by those people and whoever else might have a similar method of searching. After all, world domination wasn't a very original wish. Anyone else with the right resources would want them, too.

But...it was the question of what exactly these things _were_ , and what exactly they _summoned_ when put together that worried her more. After all...if one could simply wish to rule the world, why was it only _now_ that a military unit had organized itself enough to seek out such a wish? What was it about the dragonballs that must have prevented earlier seekers from making such a wish, if - as Goku and Bulma had both insisted - they really _did_ grant these impossible things.

And...just what was it that could simply _will_ things into being the way they chose?

Although they already were moving out of the frozen tundra, she felt a fresh chill run though her.

This 'dragon'...was almost certainly a manifestation of Kaguya herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Muscle Tower arc is done! Onward, to more characters and less Sakura-Goku buddy cop time.


	27. Chapter 27

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He settled back in the cozy chair. When he first came to West City, he had trouble getting used to such luxury. Cutting his hair, dressing 'civilized', going to school...somehow those things were less jarring than living in a rich house with rich people, where he could have anything he wanted without needing to steal or fight for it. At some point, he'd begun to get used to it.
> 
> That was a little jarring, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I suspect that the dog king was the first person to successfully make a wish to the dragon. Also, on the flip side of the zero down time between the tournament arc and the red ribbon army arc, between muscle tower and the next saga are a few actual filler chapters.
> 
> One whole chapter is dedicated just to Goku wandering around the city not knowing where he's going, getting into street brawls to fill up space, and another is mostly just scenery porn of Bulma's house featuring her silly family.

The trip back to the city took a bit longer than the way there, as they stopped in another small village to eat and rest, rather than use the house. By the time they arrived back in West City, it was near sunset.

"Ahh..." Goku frowned as he hopped off of Nimbus. "This place is still so confusing."

She propped her hands on her hips as she looked around the bustling city. "Well...I know the way to her house...but I don't recognize any of the landmarks around here."

"Huh..." He wandered ahead of her down the sidewalk. "Maybe we can ask someone here where to find it."

"Maybe..." She did, apparently, live in Capsule Corporation's headquarters. It was a fairly large complex.

He ambled over toward one of the girls passing on the street. "Hey! Do you know where Bulma's house is?"

"Uh...Bulma...?" The woman blinked down at him.

She stepped up next to Goku before the woman could respond. "Capsule Corporation Headquarters?"

"Oh..." The woman tapped her chin. "I think that's in the center of the city. I don't really go there, though..."

"The center of the city..." She nodded. It wouldn't be too far to go. And it would be near enough to the complex that she'd be able to find her way to the house from the center of the city.

"The center is..." Goku frowned for a moment, and then pointed off in the distance. "This way, right?"

She nodded. "Let's go."

The quickest way was probably to ride the cloud into the center of the city...but with all of the traffic in the air, it would be difficult not to crash into some of them, or to cause others to crash. But the city wasn't so large they couldn't just _run_ there quick enough.

"Wanna race?" Goku glanced up at her with a grin as they sprinted down the street.

"Hmm...sure you can do it without running into anyone?"

"Yeah!" He grinned, and raced ahead with a burst of speed.

(*)

He settled back in the cozy chair. When he first came to West City, he had trouble getting used to such luxury. Cutting his hair, dressing 'civilized', going to school...somehow those things were less jarring than living in a rich house with rich people, where he could have anything he wanted without needing to steal or fight for it. At some point, he'd begun to get used to it.

That was a little jarring, too.

He shook his head. He hadn't been abusing Capsule Corporation resources, but...even so, it bothered him that all of his efforts of digging up information on that Ino Yamanaka - _anything at all_ \- had turned up nothing. Where she came from, where she went, who she was...sometimes he'd find what seemed to be leads, but they'd end up someone completely different.

How exactly did someone so strong appear just before the world tournament, enter it and _almost_ win, then vanish from the world? He couldn't find any records of her training under any masters, any records of other feats or smaller tournaments, and nothing about where she went _after_.

It was a pet project of his, maybe it was a waste of his time...but it _bothered him_. He'd gathered up at least a little information on all the _other_ competitors while he was looking for hers, and yet she seemed to appear from the ether and vanish into a wisp of smoke just after giving up in the final round. From a position of strength.

He rubbed at his hair and shook his head.

Maybe...he _was_ wasting time and resources just so he wouldn't have to worry about Goku and his friend wandering off on their own to gather the dragonballs. Was there seriously some other world full of people that looked human? How did someone just fall through to here if that was the case, anyway?

Goku was totally going to be okay on his own, right?

"Yamcha!"

He startled out of his thoughts, and looked up at the teal-haired woman at the door. She looked...a little peeved, but he'd seen worse. She must have just been calling him for a few moments before she'd shouted like that. "Uh...sorry. I was lost in thought."

She clicked her tongue and shook her head in exasperation. "I was trying to say we've got visitors."

"Visitors?" He frowned. The Briefs got pretty much constant visitors for all sorts of reasons, given their connections and financial weight in West City, but most of those weren't really of any importance to him. At most, her father would politely nudge him out of sight from time to time.

It was a little odd she'd be the one to go out of her way to let him know about visitors, under those circumstances.

A small figure peered around the door into the room. "Ah, Yamcha!"

He blinked. "...G _oku_?"

(*)

They'd ended up arriving at a pretty good time, apparently. That school Bulma attended had already let her back home by the time they made it to the house, and she'd been working on something in the front yard when they arrived. Whatever it was must not have been all that engaging, however, as the younger woman didn't appear to have any problem at all with Goku's request to drop all of that and fix the radar instead.

She propped her chin on her hand as she watched the woman work. Goku and Yamcha were in the other room, but the conversation had mostly been Goku's retelling of the adventure she'd _just_ lived through, so she was more curious about watching exactly how the strange device worked.

"You know, this is a delicate piece of machinery." Bulma tutted, glancing up at her. "I know I made it look cool and durable, but you can't just bang it off of the wall and floors without expecting it to break like this."

She puffed air through her cheeks. "Normally it's not part of the plan to do that." She pinched her fingers together. "But I think Goku might have actually enjoyed it a little bit."

Bulma shook her head and sighed. "...I've seen him do that before."

She didn't immediately respond, and the room lapsed into silence for a while, save for the soft clicking of the other woman's tools. She tried to understand exactly what the woman was doing, but beyond the barest mechanical understanding of some of it, none of it made any sense. It was way beyond anything she'd seen before waking up in this weird version of the world.

If she didn't need to leave as quickly as she could, she'd have the urge to find a way to learn it all and keep it for when she _did_ get home.

"...So...Goku has his tail."

She blinked, jolted slightly by Bulma's voice cutting through the silence. "He's had it before?"

"He did when I met him." Bulma nodded, speaking carefully. "How long has he had it?"

"A couple of days." Ever since she'd healed him from the biting cold in the north. It felt a little bit longer than two days, but maybe it was because Goku seemed to be so comfortable with it. Outside of muscle tower, he'd been using it as an extra appendage so often she'd almost forgotten to find it strange.

Bulma set her tools down onto the table, though she still stared down at the radar. "It's almost the full moon."

She frowned over at the blue haired woman, expectant. Why should the phase of the moon affect Goku's tail...situation?

"Listen to me, because this is important." The woman glanced up at her finally. "Whatever you do, wherever you are when it happens... _do not let Goku outside when the moon is full_."

"What...?"

"Close the windows, make him go to sleep early, whatever you need to do." Bulma turned in her seat slightly. "Just don't let Goku ever look at the full moon when he has his tail."

She frowned over at the other woman for a moment or two. "...And why wouldn't I let him do that?"

"I..." Bulma bit her lip and glanced away briefly, before shaking her head, steadying herself about something. "I realize this sounds a little bit unbelievable, but there's more unusual things to Goku than just having a tail and being unnaturally tough. I used to know him when he had it before. And...when he looks at the full moon with that tail, he turns into a giant, _bloodthirsty monster_."

"A...monster?" Her stomach flipped. But...no. She'd checked Goku's chakra network when she'd healed him, and there wasn't _anything_ like Naruto's. He couldn't be some kind of Jinchuuriki. Even if he were, Kaguya had all of them in her already, right? Why would she allow someone to exist in some other world of hers with one?

Bulma crossed her arms and nodded. "Mm. I didn't believe it until I saw it. Apparently..." She shook her head, expression softening into something like regret. "Apparently...Goku was raised by his grandfather. One night, he didn't listen to the warnings his grandfather gave him not to look at the moon, and when he woke up a monster had killed his grandfather."

Before she could say anything, Bulma spoke right over her. "And I saw it. We were in a death trap on our last adventure for the Dragonballs, and while we were there he looked at the full moon. Right in front of me, he turned into a giant monkey! It was _huge_ and _violent_ and...it was like he didn't recognize us anymore while he was the creature. Or he didn't care." She bit her cheek, and looked down at the ground. "When we cut off his tail, he turned back into a kid...and he didn't have any memory of it happening again. Which means..."

The one who killed his grandfather was almost certainly himself.

She crossed her own arms. It _did_ sound uncomfortably like an unfortunate Jinchuuriki story. Not everything lined up: the ones who lost control of their beasts didn't generally get control again, and they didn't usually have _actual tails_. But..this was a different dimension, where people handled chakra in a _completely_ different way, and did things she couldn't even figure _out_ using her normal knowledge.

Yet...it didn't change the fact that she didn't find anything in his network to suggest there was another hidden one somewhere, or another entity lurking and waiting for a full moon (of all things) to awaken inside him.

Other than all those unused extra chakra pathways running throughout his body.

...They couldn't be for that, though. If she'd stimulated those pathways instead of the one that regrew his tail...just exactly what effect would it have on him? Would it have...?

"Hey." Yamcha's voice cut through her thoughts, and the man lingered in the door, standing next to Goku himself. "How's the Dragon Radar coming?"

Bulma immediately turned her attention back to the device with an annoyed huff. "There's a few pieces these guys absolutely shattered! I had to completely replace them with new ones. But I'm almost done."

Yamcha tugged at his hair with a grimace. "Are you guys gonna head right back out immediately afterward?"

She nodded, glancing over at the man, rather than Bulma. "The sooner that we collect these dragonballs, the better."

"Well, yeah, probably. Especially if anyone else decides they want to take a crack at the legend. Sooner or later I guess _that_ 's bound to happen again, since we did it in the first place." He shifted from foot to foot, falling silent for a few moments, before he finally spoke again. "So, uh...considering that...do you guys mind if I come with?"

Bulma spoke before anyone else in the room could. "You want to _what_?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dearest me, sometimes I suppose I forget to forget Yamcha.


	28. Chapter 28

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She pressed a few buttons, and then...vanished. Sakura blinked, and glanced around the room out of instinct. Maybe moving around the room didn't really have anything to do with whether or not she could fit on a cloud (or the thing Krillin had mentioned about being able to float on it), but when a person disappeared...it was hard-wired instinct to see where they went.

"You want to _what_?" Bulma spoke over the rest of the room.

Yamcha shifted on his feet and grimaced from the doorway. "I mean...the more people who work on it, the faster it'll go, right? Considering the circumstances of how it went down last time, I kind of want to be able to help for real this time."

Bulma clicked her tongue, and sighed. "Well...I guess we could go. It's Sunday tomorrow, so we'd have a day to tag along, at least. In that time we might get the rest of the dragonballs with my help."

She...doubted that, considering the travel time involved simply in getting to their _first_ dragonball. But she wasn't the one who could make that decision. Goku was, given he had the summon...creature...friend that would be carrying them.

Goku didn't look particularly pleased. In fact, as he squinted up at them, she thought he looked downright _peeved_. "Yeah, but neither one of you can ride on the Nimbus. You'd have to both hang on to me the whole time."

"Ah! I've got a solution to that. _And_ to the space squeeze issue." Bulma held up her hand and pointed to a device on her wrist. "Watch!"

She pressed a few buttons, and then...vanished. Sakura blinked, and glanced around the room out of instinct. Maybe moving around the room didn't really have anything to do with whether or not she could fit on a cloud (or the thing Krillin had mentioned about being able to float on it), but when a person disappeared...it was hard-wired instinct to see where they went.

"Down here!" Bulma's voice called from the seat she'd been sitting on. After a moment, Sakura realized...Bulma was indeed standing right where she'd been sitting. About the size of a small figure. That was...very advanced henge.

Goku ambled over to the chair, eyes wide with awe, and peered through the gap between the seat and the arm of the chair. "Wow, you're so small now!"

"Yep!" Bulma nodded quickly. "I could fit in your pocket easily this way. Of course...this is only my prototype. I only have one..."

"Well...if Goku is carrying you, it won't be a problem if I carry Yamcha." She shrugged, glancing over at the figure still lingering in the door, looking somewhat distressed. "It'd be easy to carry him on on arm if I had to."

He scoffed. "I'm _pretty sure_ we could find a less ridiculous way to fit on the cloud."

Goku turned toward the taller man, then. "Well, there's lots of room on her lap when she sits on Nimbus."

Yamcha, wisely, didn't speak. Before she could say anything on the matter, however, Bulma reappeared at normal size. " _No need_! Yamcha can use this one. If one of us is going to be normal size, I'd rather be able to do it myself."

"Uh..." Goku frowned back toward her. "But have you fixed the Dragon Radar yet?"

"Yeah, just about!" Bulma nodded and stood, hands on her hips. "So, let's get going! If you've only got one dragonball in all this time already, we've really gotta move it to catch up!"

Well...

At least if something broke the radar again, they wouldn't need to waste an entire day returning to West City again.

(*)

They were going to need to waste the _entire day_ going back and forth between West City.

They wouldn't have needed to if Bulma hadn't gotten _jealous_ and rushed everyone out of the house all at once...but he had enough sense not to point that out. She was agitated enough as it was, pacing back and forth on the beach and rambling to herself about forgetting to pack.

Goku had already tried to swim to it, but as it was _the ocean_ , obviously that had turned out not to be an option. Not only had Bulma left her things, but she'd left her wallet behind as well, which meant that they couldn't simply wander the island and look for another submarine capsule, either.

Sakura, who had been standing a small distance from where they'd stepped off of the Nimbus cloud, spoke up and cut through Bulma's angry rant. "Well, I can give it a shot, at least. I can hold my breath longer than Goku."

"Eh? But it's _really_ deep! I didn't see the bottom at all!"

She pursed her lips. "Well...if it doesn't work, we can just go back and get something. But if I can get there, then we'll save time." She held out a hand to Goku. "Let me see the radar."

He frowned at the pair. Exactly why would she think she could hold her breath long enough to make it to the bottom of an _ocean_? She'd been trained by Muten Roshi as well, but if Goku couldn't manage it, that obviously didn't really apply to the situation. Having a larger lung capacity would only do so much.

"Hey," he spoke, as Goku handed the device over. "Try not to drown. There's no way to signal us if you're having problems in there."

"Don't worry." She tossed him a confident smirk. One that was...oddly familiar, even if he couldn't quite place it. "I'm _really good_ at holding my breath."

(*)

She wasn't all that good at holding her breath. Not any more than the next ninja, anyway.

She _was_ pretty good at shutting down her breathing completely using medical jutsu and using mitotic regeneration to constantly replenish the cells that died due to lack of air. It was a _very_ unpleasant experience. Her teacher would scold her for _hours_ if she knew. She could worry about what Lady Tsunade would say about using mitotic regeneration lightly once she made it home.

It took a good five minutes of swimming downward to get to the bottom. She'd almost given up on the idea of swimming down on her own, regeneration or not. It was incredibly uncomfortable, and as much as she disliked the different vehicles this world had to offer, one of them might actually be able to move more quickly than her.

She hadn't been able to take the radar under the water, but Goku had taken her out with Nimbus until she was above it by the radar's reckoning. Presumably in her descent there was a certain amount of drift involved...but the ground itself wasn't shaped in any way that would easily hide something the size and shape of a dragonball. Which made it all the more vexing not to see it.

She frowned, and looked left and right. Colorful fish of sizes and shapes she'd never seen before swirled nearby her, wary of her movements but not so frightened as to avoid her completely. Small plants waved lazily in the deep currents...and not one glimmer of the dragonball showed anywhere she looked.

...Quite possibly because of the crevice on the ocean floor a few feet from where she floated. Of all the places for it to land...the dragonball must have fallen into that crevice, hadn't it? She swam closer to it...but as was to be expected by the depths of the sea, getting closer to the tiny cave didn't really improve visibility inside it.

She slid her fingers down into the crack, but it narrowed at uneven points. She couldn't get very far. At any point along the crevice there might have been a wider opening that it fell into...but that wouldn't stop it from rolling to any _other_ point along the way.

She bit her lip. Ordinarily, she'd consider simply smashing the rock and hefting it all away...but with a crack in the ground, there was no telling if there might be a cave network of some sort underneath it...and with all of the water, there was too much chance it might just end up burying the ball deeper.

She _really_ didn't want to have to spend an excessive amount of time digging it up while she continuously almost suffocated.

...Going back to West City was, apparently, the only choice after all. _Frustrating_.

(*)

The looks on most of their faces told her that her return trip probably took about as long as the one down had taken. Ten minutes without air was...something.

No matter how much she'd sustained herself with chakra, healed the damaged cells, prevented herself from _actually_ drowning...she still gasped as violently as if she'd been holding her breath through sheer force of will that whole time. _Actual air_ was _so much better_ than 'not quite dying'.

"How...are you _alive_?" Bulma shook her head, and stared with an expression even more alarmed than Yamcha's. "Even Goku wouldn't be able to hold his breath that long!"

"I really thought you'd found a way to drown after all..."

She squinted over at the tall man. He didn't really look like a person who'd thought she was dead. Even if he didn't know her as well as she knew him, she'd have expected a _touch_ more concern from someone like him.

Goku, on the other hand, didn't look worried or relieved at all. "I knew you'd do it!"

She sighed, and squeezed out her unruly hair. "I made it to the bottom...but the problem is, it fell into one of the cracks in the ground, and I can't figure out where it is right now without that device."

Bulma clicked her tongue, planting her hand on a hip. "Yeah...but it's not waterproof. Not with all the water pressure that's gonna be down there. There's no helping it. We've gotta go back and get my submarine capsule. If we can just take the ship down to where the dragonball is, I'll be able to get a better cross-section look at it, and then it'll be easy to pick it up."

"Well..." Goku turned around toward Bulma, speaking up again. "We could do that, but...old master Roshi lives near here. He's got all sorts of water vehicles! I bet he's got at least _one_ that goes underwater!"

"Old Roshi...?" Bulma groaned, and placed a hand to her face. "That he'd have a submarine while he lives so far from normal civilization makes _way too much_ sense."

"See?" Goku pointed to himself, voice excited. "It's a good idea, right?"

"Well..." Bulma grumbled to herself. "It _would_ save time..."

"If nothing else, we can borrow money to buy one for ourselves from him, right?" Yamcha spoke up, voice hopeful.

The woman's shoulders drooped and her head dropped. " _Ugh_...but... _him..."_

_"Hey!_ I'm here!" He puffed out his chest and tapped it with his knuckles. "As long as I'm around, I'll keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn't try to do anything _perverted_ to you."

"You _better_." Bulma crossed her arms and harrumphed, looking away from him. "Because if you don't, then I'm gonna spend the whole rest of this trip looking for a _way better_ man than you are!"

Having lived with the old man...she wasn't entirely certain Bulma's ultimatum was fair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I almost made it so that she'd pack properly and skip to the submarine...but that derailing would be pretty intense.


	29. Chapter 29

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The island really was as small as she'd remembered it being. The large turtle that had wandered onto the shore was almost a quarter of the land the house didn't take up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My chapters have been dragging since Kumoricon because I just haven't had the proper amount of sleep to catch up on all the energy I lost over the weekend. Updates might slow down for a bit so I can recover, but the quality will improve more.
> 
> Also
> 
> Dragonball heights, man
> 
> they make me hurt
> 
> Trying to sort out consistent heights for the characters is like trying to make Naruto's pre-manga timeline make sense. I need to write up a chart not for power levels but to figure out who the hell is taller than whom.

At some point after the tournament, the old man had returned to that miniature island she'd woken up on. At first they'd gone looking at the larger one nearby, but the house was already gone, and there wasn't any sign of either of the residents.

The island really _was_ as small as she'd remembered it being. The large turtle that had wandered onto the shore was almost a quarter of the land the house didn't take up. She helped Bulma down to the ground, then dropped down herself as Goku leaped off of the cloud.

"Oh, Goku!" Said the... _turtle_. She blinked, and looked down at the creature. Talking animals weren't anything new, even before ending up in this strange world with clothes wearing animals treated like humans...she just hadn't expected one that lingered where it belonged to be one of those.

The turtle lifted its head toward the boy. "And Bulma! How nostalgic to see the both of you."

"Ohh!" Goku grinned, planting his hands on his hips. "I wondered if you'd ever get back. You missed out on meeting Sakura!"

"I heard." The turtle turned its gaze toward her then, and dropped its head slightly. "I am Umigame. I was on a trip while you were here last..."

The front door rattled, and Krillin peered out. "Hey, who are you..." He trailed off, and stared at the three...visible people standing in front of the house.

" _Krillin_!" Goku grinned, and lifted his hands in excitement.

The gesture must have been the last Yamcha's patience could take, as his tiny figure jumped out from where he stayed tucked in Goku's shirt, and then quickly grew back to normal size. " _Ugh_...that's really unpleasant."

Krillin, who'd frozen a step out of the house once Yamcha appeared, stared up at him in confused shock. "... _Eh_? Wh...what was _that_?"

"It's a watch I made." Bulma spoke, walking up next to Yamcha. "It's not _just_ for hitching a ride on the Nimbus, but it's pretty useful for it anyway. It allows the user to shrink or to grow as easily as pressing a few buttons. Cool, huh?"

The small boy, who had briefly held an expression similar to the excitement Goku expressed at seeing him, passed his gaze across Bulma, Yamcha, and herself with some suspicion. "There sure are a lot of you for a surprise visit."

"We're here to see if the old man has a..." What was it?

"Submarine." Bulma picked up where Sakura had trailed off. "Do you have one of those?"

"Uh..." Krillin looked over his shoulder into the house. "Master! They want your submarine capsule!"

"They _what_?" The voice of the old man called from the house.

"Well...we actually just want to borrow it." Yamcha shrugged. "As soon as we've got the dragonball, he can have it back."

" _Oh_." Krillin's response was flat, and he glared between she and Goku. "You're still on that."

(*)

He didn't actually expect _anything_ , since he hadn't really expected to see them any time soon...but he still felt pretty disappointed just to hear they only came back to draft him into their weird little...wish mission.

It wasn't like he _missed_ them or anything, they'd only been gone a month, and he'd been living with them for eight before then. He just...didn't have much to show for the month they'd been gone, and in that month they _still_ believed that insane story about parallel worlds being totally different but the same as the normal one. Apparently they'd convinced Goku's _other_ friend, too, if that guy had tagged along.

"If you're gonna use a submarine to go looking for things at the bottom of the ocean, you might as well go looking for pirate treasure or something, as well."

Goku blinked, looking over from their master, who had just now wandered out of the house, to him. "Treasure?"

The old man huffed. "What's this about submarines and treasure...?"

Sakura placed a hand on her hip. "We need to borrow your submarine to get one of the dragonballs. It fell to the bottom of the ocean."

"Hmm..." The man harrumphed. "I don't see why I should lend out my things. Dragonball quests are dangerous, you might break it."

"I'd buy you another one!" Bulma, that rich girl, spoke.

"They don't make it any longer."

Krillin was pretty sure that they _did_ in fact still make them, and that he'd seen one for sale only a week ago when he went for supplies. He was also pretty sure the old man was winding up for some kind of demand, though, and he didn't want it to include 'get off my island, Krillin'. Or anything to that effect.

Bulma sighed and grumbled out a response. "...What do you _want_."

"Mm..." Roshi straightened, sunlight glinting off of his sunglasses. "It's been so long...perhaps...a little tsun-tsun? Puff-puff?"

"You can _die_." Sakura's response was quick enough she must have expected that sort of answer.

Which made sense, given that she _knew_ him.

"Yeah! You can't just mess with another guy's girlfriend in front of him!" Yamcha took a step in front of Bulma, frowning in determination.

"Well..." The old man turned back toward the house. "Fine then. You won't need my submarine."

Sakura _growled_. The air around his skin vibrated slightly. Her face looked unnaturally dark, like she was secretly a demon (a theory he hadn't entirely discounted yet after that rock punching incident).

He didn't even see her move. One moment she stood in place on one side of the island, the next, she lifted old man Roshi up off of his feet by the front of his shirt. " _Listen here, you little pervert_! You _won't_ get to peep, touch, or in any other way be a _pervert_ just to give us a favor!"

His master's chuckle sounded a little nervous, but that was fair. He felt nervous, too.

"Now...Sakura, don't you think it's fair to trade something for another thing?"

She didn't let the old man down. She still glared at him. The air felt a little less like it was about to spontaneously burst into flame, though. "You _can't have anything perverted_."

" _Hmm._ " The old man stared up at her behind his glasses, apparently unfazed by her glare, other than that initial nervous sound. "Do you have anything else to trade?"

An awkward silence swept across the group of visitors and ex-students. At least...most of the group. Goku didn't look awkward, just intently curious. He was the first to break the silence.

"You forgot to bring anything else, right? Just hurry up and agree so we can get the dragonball!"

Sakura let the old man drop to the sand with a sudden crash.

He wasn't sure which of the three older people the frosty chill in the air came from, but he guessed it was probably all of them. Even though that was the obvious answer...he was kind of glad it was Goku who suggested it, instead. That was way too much negative energy to focus all on _him_.

"There's no way." Yamcha shook his head firmly, crossing his arms. "We'll go back to West City, but you're not gonna let that old man paw at you."

" _Excuse me?_ " The teal haired woman planted her hands on her hips and actually glared up at the taller man. "Who said you could decide what I do?"

"Wha-?" Yamcha blinked and looked over his shoulder, turning toward her in confusion after a moment. "But...you said-"

"You can't just make decisions about my body for me when I'm standing _right here_!" She jabbed her finger into his chest. "I didn't agree to go all the way back to West City just because of you!"

"Wh-Do you _want_ him to do it?! _Why_?"

" _Don't change the subject_!"

"You could just trade him the watch." He didn't mean to get involved, he was happy just watching while his two fellow students got annoyed and the two...other people fought about...whatever it was they were fighting about.

It was just reflexive. The agitation was starting to infect him, and the answer seemed _really obvious_.

"Watch?" Roshi, who'd finally gotten back up, glanced over at him in curiosity. "Why would I want a watch for a whole submarine?"

Bulma blinked, looking between him and the old man, as if she'd totally forgotten about the thing. Maybe it was easy to forget when _someone_ didn't pop up out of nowhere in front of her and startle her a minute ago.

"Yeah...why would he?"

Sakura frowned slightly, and crossed her arms. "Well...being able to shrink down to pocket-size _is_ useful. If it were waterproof, I'd have just used that to collect the dragonball."

The old man spoke next. "Shrink...to what?"

(*)

" _Ugh_ , if I knew how small this was I'd _never_ have agreed to trading the watch!" Bulma gave an irritated groan from the back of the submarine. It wasn't really the 'back', though, as the small vehicle would have charitably had space for three.

For some reason, they'd forced five into it.

The fifth was the part that confused her, mostly. Roshi had agreed to the swap _very_ quickly once Bulma offered the watch. Krillin demanding to go along had been at the last minute, just as they were squeezing into the small space.

It wasn't a pleasant experience. Krillin sat atop a hatch, Yamcha drove the device, Goku stood behind the chair slightly ahead of where Krillin was, she sat in the rear seat...and Bulma ended up curled up behind her, where she could most easily look at the radar.

"Then you wouldn't have any way to get the dragonball, right?" Krillin swung his legs.

"The radar said it's about here, right?" Yamcha spoke up before the conversation could continue any further. "I don't see anything down there..."

"Uh..." The woman pressed a few buttons. "Let me see if I can get a cross-section and see how deep it is."

"A cross section?" Goku hadn't mentioned there being anything like that...it would have made it slightly more straightforward if they'd been able to locate exactly which floor the dragonball was on from the start.

"Mm. It lets me see what's in there." Bulma leaned forward and held the device over her shoulder. "See? That dot is the dragonball, but now we can also see the cavern it's in..."

She...could, with a bit of squinting. "It looks like it leads to an opening deeper in."

"Yeah, it looks like it. Yamcha!" Bulma called over her shoulder. "Find where this drops down, and follow the cliff side. It looks like there's a cave we can follow into it."

The man gave a slight shrug, and the ship turned sideways, plummeting down deeper than she'd previously noticed the ocean floor went. "Just tell me if I'm getting closer or further away from it, since you're the one with the map."

"Keep an eye out for sunken ships, too." Krillin interjected.

She glanced over at the small one. "Where would you even _put_ the treasure if you found it?"

He huffed. "I have empty capsules. I'm not unprepared. Unlike _you_ guys."

From behind her, Bulma made an irritated sound. "Why you _little_ -"

"Hey!" Yamcha shouted. "I think I found the cave!"

Krillin glanced back toward Bulma a moment, and then spoke in a hesitant voice. "...Does it have skulls or flags outside it?"

"Uh. _No_."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why didn't Bulma go wandering through that one island and trip the random encounter?
> 
> She had packed up for going out when she left with Goku. She didn't bring anything when she went this time, because she expected Yamcha to do it. Therefore she had no zeni with which to theoretically buy a capsule with.


	30. Chapter 30

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frankly, she was a little more concerned with getting this ball and moving on to another one before that army found more. The less that army had when it came time to deal with wherever they were storing them, the better. It lessened the chance of them somehow accidentally getting a hold of that wish.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I just found a thing that said Madara was Nappa's strength. Which puts Sakura currently around the level the Z fighters were at during that confrontation. Nifty, right?
> 
> Not very relevant to the matter at hand, but nifty.

"Are you _sure_ this thing leads to the Dragonball?"

It was the first time he'd asked the question, but it had hung in the air almost since they'd entered the cave. Other than where the lights at the front of their submarine shone, the underwater cave was completely dark...and the further they went, the closer the walls around them grew.

"I'm looking _right_ at the dragon radar."

"I just don't remember it being able to see _walls_..."

"So I made _improvements_! Am I not _allowed_ to do that?"

Krillin flinched slightly from where he sat at the hatch. It _was_ a tense atmosphere inside the vehicle. Being stuck between the feuding two didn't help with the cramped spacing. Even she found her jaw set. Goku was the only one who seemed unaffected by it, staring out the windows in wonder and apparently ignoring the conversation within.

"It doesn't really matter. Even if there were something in the way, we could just move it." Presumably, the tension still traced back to the mix up when they left Bulma's home, but she didn't want to ride along in any worse tension than there already was.

"Well...if we're careful, I guess." Yamcha shrugged slightly. "Ah! Guys!"

His tone changed to one of pleasant surprise as the submarine surfaced above water in...another cave. One which was above ground, and surprisingly not flooded. Clearly, there must have been levels of rock above their heads that blocked the water that would have flowed in through the crack.

Which meant that the dragonball would be...up. On foot.

Goku blinked, looking around. "How did we get outside?"

Krillin stood quickly as the top of the vehicle swung open. "We're not outside, this is some kind of underwater cave, right?"

Bulma nodded, as they began to migrate over to the patch of dry land that led into another dark cave. "We're just in a portion that's got air trapped inside. Hopefully it'll keep up like this to the dragonball."

Yamcha planted a hand on his hip and the other shaded his eyes as he peered off into the darkness. "Should we put the submarine back in the capsule just in case?"

"Well...I guess we can. But even if we run into another wall of water somewhere along the way, it doesn't mean it'll be big enough to fit this through."

Sakura rolled her shoulders and started down the hallway. If it wasn't enough room for the submarine, then she'd just swim the rest of the way to the dragonball. Frankly, she was a little more concerned with getting this ball and moving on to another one before that army found more. The less that army had when it came time to deal with wherever they were storing them, the better. It lessened the chance of them somehow accidentally getting a hold of that wish.

Goku appeared next to her after a moment, followed quickly by a more reluctant looking Krillin.

"It's a cave in a cave on the bottom of the ocean...it's a good hiding place for treasure."

She glanced down at him. "If they could get it down through that tiny opening."

He frowned, and said nothing. It was difficult to see his frown, though, as the further they went from the submarine, the darker the cave got. She frowned, and came to a stop, searching the area in the dim light.

"What is it?" Yamcha asked, as he walked up to them.

The light from the submarine remained in the cave, and Bulma stood not far from where Yamcha did. Maybe they'd decided to keep it there just for the light? It wouldn't do much help for very much longer, though.

"Do any of you have anything like a stick?"

"My power pole?"

She shook her head quickly before Goku could reach for it. "Something disposable. Something that can be used as a torch."

"Ah..." Bulma spoke up, and turned back toward the submarine. "There's some drift wood near where we came up!"

"Do you have anything to light it with...?" Yamcha rubbed at the back of his head, awkward. "Because I know plenty of ways to do it, but there's not really anything around to do it _with_ here."

"As long as there's something to burn." She'd used enough chakra as it was just swimming. She wouldn't _literally_ burn it just for an enduring jutsu of some sort.

That she'd pretty much have to come up with on the fly, since ninja were generally always given the supplies required to light their paths well enough on _any_ mission where darkness and the night would be a thing they weren't meant only to sneak through.

A few moments later, Bulma returned holding an uneven piece of driftwood. It wasn't very thick, but it was big enough to do for a while. "This is the best thing there. Most of the rest just dissolved when I tried to pick it up."

She nodded and took the wood from the other woman. Fire was _not_ an element she excelled at. Honestly, she didn't even think she was passable at it: controlling fire required more than simply controlling the flow of chakra through the jutsu like most elements. Like lightning, it took on a life of its own...and controlling it without special instruction was _difficult_.

But she only needed something simple and small in this case. A simple, academy fire jutsu would do fine.

She formed a few quick signs around the plank of wood and blew out a small fan of flame across the wood. It was an unimpressive amount...but a small amount for a brief time was much easier to control than a large amount for any extended amount of time. And she didn't need any more than that, anyway.

When she looked up at the others, ready to press forward...all four stared at her in varying shades of stunned silence. Krillin looked a little bit frightened, and Goku looked...wowed. The other two simply seemed surprised. Then again...ki _was_ a raw and unfiltered form of chakra. She'd yet to see any sign of nature transformation from it.

A moment later, Goku's expression screwed up in consternation and he mimicked her gestures (surprisingly well). He blew out as she had...and only air came out. " _Uh_? Why didn't it work?"

"What _was_ that?" Yamcha frowned over at her, apparently spurred on by Goku breaking the silence that fell after her jutsu.

"Ah..." She blinked, and then turned and started down the cave, rather than explain.

" _Hey_!" Yamcha shouted from behind her.

"I can explain things, or we can look for that dragonball before this light runs out!" She glanced over her shoulder at the others, the smallest two already having started following her.

An expression of annoyance flickered across Yamcha's face, and thoughtfulness across Bulma's, before the two began to follow.

Goku was not content to have just one or the other, however, as he looked up at her while they walked. "Why couldn't I do it? I copied just what you did! I wanna breathe fire, too."

"...I kind of want to do that, too." Krillin mumbled from her other side.

Her lips twitched. Honestly...the two of them would probably greatly improve if she _did_ pick up their teaching where the old man left off. But there just wouldn't be any way to teach them from the basics up, and how to develop their chakra networks, in the time she had before she'd be going home.

Her gaze turned to the darkness ahead. "It's because I was using something more advanced than ki." At least in the manner of complexity and difficulty. In any other manner...she had yet to completely decide on that.

"More advanced than ki?" Yamcha spoke from behind her, unsurprisingly listening into the conversation.

"I can't teach you." She shook her head. "It's not possible to learn it and use it in less than ten years of training."

"Old man Roshi said something like that about the Kamehameha wave!" Goku puffed out his chest. "I bet I could do it, too!"

Well...of course the old man was wrong: if she understood how ki worked (and she couldn't actually be sure, not being able to master it yet) mastering techniques wouldn't require building up one's chakra network.

"Well...you could give it a try on the way to the next dragonball." It probably wouldn't hurt to at least give him some basic training, even if he wouldn't be able to do anything with it. Maybe he would figure it out one day...

"Wha..." Krillin sighed in annoyance. "How am I supposed to learn anything, then?"

"Lift the torch up more." Bulma cut into the conversation suddenly, leaning over her shoulder and pointing up. "There's something on the roof."

She blinked and glanced up, lifting her arm slightly.

"Are those... _lightbulbs_?" Yamcha's voice wavered slightly in confusion.

Krillin's voice, however, was simply excited. "It _is_ a pirate base!"

(*)

"First, it's _not_ a pirate base." The doubter insisted, in her doubting voice. "Because that's _stupid_. No pirate would have the ability to get this low to hide his booty, anyway."

He snorted. Smart people like scientists always thought they knew everything. Then they just missed things that average guys like him could see.

Or things he just really wanted it to be, because if it were a pirate base at least he wasn't wasting his time hunting a dragonball and listening to Sakura and Goku talk about tracking down others just so she could go back to her magical world where people breathed fire and punched giant boulders across islands like it wasn't anything important.

Bulma went on theorizing about what _she_ thought it was about, but he didn't pay it any mind.

When he found that pirate treasure, everyone else would feel pretty dumb worrying about that unfortunately named artifact.

Goku ran up to a wall suddenly, and reached up to some kind of a button fixture.

"Hey, Goku, wait-!"

Naturally, Goku did not.

Fortunately, the only thing the big red button in the middle of a hidden underwater base did was turn the hallway lights on. (At least, the only thing it _apparently_ did. Hopefully it didn't also go and open up a floodgate somewhere...)

The party blinked up at the string of lights that ran off into the distance both in front of and behind them, and Sakura lowered the board, making some sort of gesture that blew the fire out like a large candle.

Seriously.

_What the hell_.

He'd lived with the strongest martial artist in the world for almost a year, a _legend_. He'd seen and heard of some pretty amazing things, in his opinion. Someone manipulating _actual elements_ like utilities anyone could just push around when they wanted...

That made no sense.

On reflection, maybe it was for the best she wanted to go home. If she really was some kind of monster or demon, then if she wanted to terrorize some other place than Earth, _all the better_.

Movement caught his eye, and he realized belatedly that Yamcha had walked ahead of him, investigating something on the wall opposite to where the button was. "Well...this is ominous."

He turned toward them, holding up a half of a ribcage and a skeletal arm still clad in the remnants of some kind of mostly rotted shirt.

" _Gah_!" He recoiled immediately. That was...that was _real_ , wasn't it? Actual bones? From an actual person? And their _actual body_. Where they _actually died._

_Right here._

And that person's

actual

skull

was wedged into the wall not far from Yamcha's feet.

"Hey, Krillin, those skulls you wanted are actually here after all!"


	31. Chapter 31

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The danger of the room was rather painfully blatant. Either the ones who designed the hall were incapable of subtlety, or the appearance was meant to intimidate those who saw it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't found the original interview for the Madara ~ Nappa statement, but you know what? I like it. It's a nice little rough yardstick to use to keep Sakura from being too powerful. Given the story isn't about who's stronger, I don't need more than that. So, I shall keep it!
> 
> Plus, I just got the image (sound?) of Linda Young voicing Kaguya and that's hilarious.

Krillin still looked disturbed. That was understandable, though. Even if he'd wanted to see a pirate's treasure, he was just a kid who had probably never seen anyone die before. Or dead. Or _very very_ long dead. Besides that, a pirate's cove usually held danger. Physical proof of that wasn't generally a pleasant thing.

_He_ could handle it, he'd seen bodies before, he wasn't really all that afraid of pirate traps. But he understood why a kid like Krillin, no matter how strong that kid happened to be, wouldn't be. It also made sense that Goku wasn't bothered at all (knowing Goku, it would be more alarming if it _did_ bother Goku). It was...kind of a bonus that Bulma had taken to hiding behind his shoulder and dropped the whole 'his fault she left the capsules behind' thing, too.

Sakura...also didn't have any reaction. She didn't go so far as to play with the bones left behind as Goku did (he tried to see if he could fit the skull over his head for a few moments before Bulma slapped it out of his hands), but she also didn't look disturbed by them. Whatever her real history was, she'd seen things like this before. As much as he chose not to argue with Bulma and Goku on the matter...a part of him still doubted that it was a completely different dimension she'd come from and not... _anything_ else. But then, kind of thing wasn't his specialty anyway.

He shook his head slightly. That kind of thought was just distracting. There was no telling what dangers and traps the cave held, or how difficult it would be to get to whatever unnatural place the dragonball had managed to find itself in. Worrying about Sakura's strange story wasn't really important. Even if the strange story was why they were in the cave at all.

...Well.

He might have also been there just because Goku's _tail_ was back again. While searching for dragonballs again. Near the time of a full moon. Again.

"There's something ahead." Sakura's voice broke through his thoughts, and he looked up in surprise at the hallway in front of them.

(*)

The cave so far had been natural, jagged and narrow in some places, wider and rounder in others. In front of her now, the walls were precision cut, gleaming white, and riddled with perfectly round holes. The ceiling lights looked...inset, and the floor was discolored, covered in spots.

The danger of the room was rather _painfully_ blatant. Either the ones who designed the hall were incapable of subtlety, or the appearance was meant to intimidate those who saw it.

"Well...that looks weird. I guess we're getting closer to their home base!" Krillin shrugged slightly. He'd been looking a bit pale and upset since the skeleton on the ground, but the increased light in the hallway in front of them must have bolstered his courage. Or, at least the idea that their goal was closer made him hurry.

He marched on ahead of them, heedless of the apparent danger.

Bulma spoke first, voice carrying all the concern Krillin's didn't. "Krillin, wait first..."

"It's not a problem!"

Sakura reached out and picked him up off the ground a moment before he could step on one of the dark spots on the ground.

" _Hey_! Put me down! Just because I'm little doesn't mean you can just carry me around!" He kicked and swung his legs in the air in frustration and glared up at her as she pulled him away from the hall.

"Bulma's right. This is some kind of a trap."

Goku, who had been watching Krillin with some level of amusement, blinked up at her. "Trap...?"

Yamcha rubbed at the back of his head, squinting across the room. "It's obviously something meant to keep people from getting into the pirate's treasure. Considering the guy we found back there..."

"There could be some kind of deadly gas that shoots out of these holes." Bulma pointed to the wall. "Probably, if you step on the wrong parts or in the wrong order, you'll set it off."

"Wha..." Krillin's shoulders drooped, and she set him down. "But we don't have any way of figuring out what's the right way to get past it!"

Bulma sighed and settled her hands on her hips. "Obviously there's a _way_ they used...but it could be anything. It could be following a pirate jig, or walking in a pattern that spells something."

"There could be a secret passage earlier on in the cave that bypasses this?" Yamcha offered, looking over his shoulder to the path they'd already followed.

Sakura shrugged. "There could be an entirely different cave we were meant to find."

"Looking for that could take _forever_!" Krillin clapped his hands to his face in frustration. "The path is _right there_ ahead of us!"

"No it isn't!" Bulma frowned. "It's not really there if we don't know how to cross it safely. Maybe if I go back home I can get something that we can use to bypass this place or figure out which buttons on the ground are deactivated...but if any of us touches those buttons without knowing what we're doing, we could all die!"

"So all we have to do is get across those things on the floor without touching them?" Goku's expression lit up.

"Probably it's safe where those dots end, yes." Sakura nodded. It could be that there was a certain amount of space afterward still full of traps...but considering the potential danger of the hall, and the unlikelihood of anyone getting that far without permission...it would probably cause more trouble for the pirates themselves than any intruder.

"It doesn't _matter_." Bulma sighed in exasperation. "The floor's totally covered in these things. There's no way we'd be able to get across without touching-"

"I'll jump!"

"...What."

(*)

He'd seen how far Goku progressed just in the tournament. Even if Goku had lost, comparing the Goku he'd traveled with before with the one in the tournament, the kid had improved a _crazy_ amount. Way beyond himself. That was to be expected with Muten Roshi's training, but he still found himself impressed when he saw the results.

Case in point: Goku leaping the distance of a long hallway, probably sixty-five feet, _horizontally_. Honestly, he'd have figured that one was an impossibility, unassisted. It made him wonder exactly what that training entailed. And maybe, a little, how one could go about getting that training.

After all, he'd heard the old man wouldn't take more students, but no less than _three_ were right in front of him. One of them was a girl who came from some other place. Maybe another planet entirely.

Krillin went next, after Goku. His jump was _almost_ as good, but...too vertical. He winced even before Krillin smacked into the ceiling. Only after the small kid landed on the ground, exactly in a spot they were trying to avoid standing on, did he realize Krillin might do _that_ , too.

" _Krillin_!" Sakura took a step forward, and he quickly reached out to grab her arm before she could walk onto the floor herself. Bulma shrank backward in terror as the click echoed through the air...

And then spears flew from the portion of the wall just above where the small bald one lay on the ground. Harmlessly connecting to the opposite wall. It was a little anticlimactic, actually, considering all the other possible traps such a set up could hold.

In fairness to the lost pirates, though, they probably never expected someone as astonishingly small as Krillin to find the place.

"Are you two okay over there?" He shouted down the hall, as Goku knelt down and dragged his still dazed friend out of danger.

"He just jumped too high!"

Sakura glanced down at his hand on her arm, and he quickly yanked it away. Touching his girlfriend was one thing...but he _definitely_ was not okay with physical contact involving any other girl out there. Keeping her from recklessly running into the trap herself was just instinct overriding common sense.

...He coughed, and dropped back away from the pink haired woman. "The trap's not _so_ bad...but we still have to figure out a way past it now. It didn't kill everyone here, so there's _probably_ a way past it that the pirates had to have used."

"Unless it's a pattern of steps." Bulma huffed. "But how would we reset it, now that Krillin fell on it?"

Goku waved his arm and shouted from the other side. "Just jump across!"

It didn't really surprise him Goku would say that. If prompted, the kid would probably remember that not _everyone_ could jump like that (...even though the ones who couldn't were actually outnumbered, at present), but otherwise he...probably didn't even think about where his ability came from.

Sakura dropped to her knees and clasped her hands together in some signal he...didn't really recognize. "I've got a better idea."

(*)

After the reaction to a simple fire jutsu, she wasn't exactly in a _hurry_ to use another noticeable jutsu. Besides that, until they tripped the trap, she hadn't been sure what would set it off. Simply passing over it could have done it as well.

Goku's successful leap proved that to be untrue. Krillin's...less successful leap provided the unnecessary answer as to what the nature of the trap _was_. Spears weren't really that dangerous of a trap. A person could walk straight through the hall, given sufficient protection. Sufficient protection was something that earth nature _excelled_ at.

She could have made a ramp over the floor and simply walked across it...but the idea of walking past things that _might_ go off at any moment and hurt someone for no reason wasn't something she enjoyed. Now that she knew the trap was as mild as projectiles, she needn't walk across the hall with such a concern.

She placed her hands on the ground, and twin walls of rock rose up on either side of the hall, blocking the openings completely. It did little to make the hall look more _natural_ , given how the ground and ceiling still looked...but it did effectively disarm the trap, in case they needed to cross it more quickly on the way out.

For whatever reason that might be.

" _Whoa_!" Goku called from the other side, immediately running up to the nearest wall and knocking on it.

Krillin stared at one of them as if he were afraid it might fall on him, and the two people nearest to her were...quiet. At least for a few moments.

"Just how advanced _is it_?" Bulma was actually the one speaking, blue eyes scanning the new walls with interest. "I wonder if this might be what made the dragonballs."

"I'd say that's a stretch but..." Yamcha grimaced and rubbed the back of his neck. "Considering the alternative..."

Goku trotted across the hallway toward them, ground clicking and wall thumping as he went. "Hey! Come on! There's light coming from up ahead!"

Rather than focus on what the other two were saying-questions she couldn't really answer anyway-she nodded and followed after Goku, crossing the strange looking hallway with far less flair than the two boys.

From the end of the trap, the path led on only a short way before it opened up into a wide and expansive room.

" _Wow_!" Krillin shouted, running into the gigantic room in a burst of excitement she hadn't seen from him in a while. "There's a _motorcycle underwater_!"

Personally, however, she found the giant ship that towered over everything else far more impressive. Particularly given that it was somehow hidden in a small cave under the ocean. How and why would a person take a boat, meant to be above water, and stash it _under_ the water?

Yamcha, who wandered into the room last, spoke next. "... _Are those cannonballs_?"

Krillin paused in his inspection of the bike and looked over his shoulder at the older man. "Hey. I called dibs on pirate treasure!"

" _You did not_!"


	32. Chapter 32

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Krillin's scream echoed across the cave, followed by the sound of shattered glass.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dude? Where's all the updates?!
> 
> I was house hunting and moving, and right now my commute is ridiculous. Let's try to get chapters out anyway!
> 
> Honestly, though, I find this section to be a little slow without the hot pursuit involved. Things will pick up.

The three boys seemed intent on searching the nearby buildings for some form of pirate treasure. Yamcha claimed to simply be watching over them to make sure they didn't trip any other traps, but his expression looked a bit excited when she saw him sprint after them.

The dragonball wouldn't be a part of the treasure. It had to have a method to land in it, after all, so an intact building was an unlikely location. Unless more of that army happened to be nearby and... _quiet_. Bulma stood next to her, staring up at the ship in front of them.

"Does the radar say it's in that ship?"

"Huh?" The woman glanced over at her in surprise, startled out of mid-thought. "Oh! Um. I haven't checked yet..but this isn't the right elevation yet anyway."

So...there was another exit somewhere in the room that led deeper into the cavern after all.

"I wonder if this ship still runs." Bulma pursed her lips, staring up at it. "There must be a bigger exit somewhere down this river, since the pirates wouldn't have had capsules to get these supplies in through that other entrance."

"...You mean the tunnel probably _wasn't_ supposed to be crossed."

She laughed. "...No. Probably not. But it'll save us a lot of walking if we can get this running instead of making our way back that direction."

Before Sakura could say anything in response, Krillin's scream echoed across the cave, followed by the sound of shattered glass. She turned in time to see her fellow student crashing to the ground in front of one of the buildings in the underwater cove. From the darkness of the window he'd likely jumped from, red lights glowed.

"T-Trap!" Krillin sprinted away from the building as the other two men appeared from another.

"You set off a trap? Where? What is it?" Yamcha looked up as he spoke, scanning the side of the structure Krillin had fled from.

The answer didn't take long to arrive. With an echoing roar, a metallic figure burst from the window and flew through the air, propelled by jets of fire.

"An enemy!" Goku's shout seemed more excited than anything else. Considering how pathetic the trap was, some sort of guard _would_ be the most excitement the cove had provided since they arrived. If excitement was defined by danger.

"It's some kind of defense robot!" Bulma shouted, as it collided with the ground in a crash of metal on stone. "You guys must have triggered it going through the stuff!"

"Ah _man_..." Yamcha sighed, and settled into a defensive pose as the figure turned a slow circle back toward their somewhat scattered group. "I was just thinking I hadn't picked the right clothes to go and fight in, too."

The hunched over figure landed with a crash not far from where they gathered. The shape of its strange head reminded her somewhat of a few puppets she'd witnessed, but there were no indications of chakra strings on it. Something that advanced would have been rather out of place inside a dilapidated old pirate's cove.

As the creature lifted its arm, Bulma shouted again. "Oh no, it's got a gun arm!"

Rapidfire shots rang out across the cavern, and the tiles on the ground shattered as its arm swept up in their direction. On instinct, Sakura dove out of the way and moved to shield Krillin. If they were anything like the last one, the attack wasn't that much of a threat to her...but she'd already shown enough of her abilities for one day. She glanced over in the direction where Bulma and Yamcha had been. The two stood a little ways from where they were before, on the hull of the ship.

Goku, who had been outside of the initial attack like Krillin, charged ahead with a shout. "Don't attack my friends!"

Next to her, Krillin shook himself slightly, and charged afterward. "R-Right, let's take it down!"

Goku leaped into the air and spun, striking it squarely in the shoulder with a kick, and causing it to stumble backward. Its other hand struck at Goku with its short sword, but Krillin slid underneath the swing and punched the flat of the blade, shattering it into four pieces. Red eyes glowed brighter in its strange looking skull in response, and it kicked the small boy square in the gut, sending him flying into the metal ship.

" _Krillin_!" Goku shouted and jumped over one of the robot's attacks, sprinting after his friend instead.

There was some question as to whether the creature actually packed enough strength to harm Goku even when he was off guard, but she didn't see any real reason to figure that out. She sprinted ahead toward the figure as Goku moved to investigate Krillin's state. Belatedly, she glanced over in the direction of the other two in the group.

Bulma stood behind a small stack of crates at a safe distance, Yamcha was just a step behind her.

His gaze flickered over to Krillin, and then to her. "Hey, you're sure you can fight, right?"

"Can you?"

He laughed just as she reached the figure that had predictably begun to turn toward Goku. "No you don't!" The impact of her fist caved the hollow gun arm inward, and sent the robot spiraling backward through the air.

"Wolf Fang Fist!" Yamcha shouted as he had in the tournament, and his speed increased once more, air howling around him as he moved. His form blurred slightly as he jumped into the air, propelled himself off of the side of the ship, and then shot at the tumbling form of their opponent. The strikes did an impressive amount of damage to the robot, denting and piercing through it with each hit.

She sprinted up to the creature just as Goku and Krillin joined the battle again.

The participation wasn't necessary, however, as the robot itself simply twitched and popped sparks from where it moved, clicking and whirring uselessly. Clearly Yamcha's attack had damaged it too badly for it to get back up, crushing its arm and tearing holes through its abdomen and skull.

The hand that had the gun lifted, and Yamcha gave a shout of alarm. " _Get back_!"

Bits of metal exploded outward everywhere just a moment before a larger figure collided with her and sent her backward onto the ground. Though she couldn't see them through Yamcha, she heard the other two near them give surprised shouts...but at least the sounds weren't pained.

Which suggested they felt slightly less worse for wear than she did, stuck between a heavy person and the hard ground. She winced slightly at the sound her head had made impacting the ground. She was more than tough enough to handle a minor impact like that...but it still didn't make the collision _sound_ any better.

Yamcha, at least, looked somewhat apologetic before his expression turned to something horrified and he vanished from her sight. "Uh! _Sorry_!"

...Really, was there something about her that looked _that_ intimidating? He'd acted skittish most of the time she'd spoken to him when she was in disguise at the tournament, too. It wasn't like she _couldn't_ be intimidating...but most of the time that wasn't the response she got out of people when she wasn't explicitly going for that.

She shook her head slightly, dismissing that distraction and the slight lingering disorientation from the sudden fall, and pushed herself back up to her feet. "Is it dead?"

Goku and Krillin stood a short distance away, having backed up when the arm exploded as well, and Yamcha stood over it again, looking wary. Of it, or of her she...wasn't really certain.

"I don't think it's dead...but I don't think it can do anything more now that it's damaged itself so much with that last attempt to attack us."

She made her way closer to the twisted metal creature just as the other two boys began to draw close again. Krillin was the next to speak, voice a little uncertain. "Should we make _sure_ it's dead?"

"Well we _could..."_ Yamcha shrugged slightly. "But we probably don't need to. Even Bulma probably couldn't make this thing work again."

Goku frowned down at it. "If it's harmless, we don't need to kill it."

"It's a robot, you don't 'kill it'." Bulma, who must have determined the battle was over, walked up behind them. "But...that thing has a fuel tank on it, and maybe even a more powerful source of power on it. If you're not careful about how you try to 'kill' it, you might make it blow up in your face."

"Can you do it?" Bulma did seem to be the one most well versed in it, if anyone could do it she assumed it would be her.

The woman frowned and crossed her arms. "Probably. Maybe. But it'd take time, and I think if we leave it alone we'll be fine. It's not making any weird noises or giving off any signs of being compromised. And we're only here for the dragonball."

"And the _treasure_!"

Bulma frowned, but didn't look at Krillin. " _Either way_ , we're not staying here. It can explode on its own later if it wants."

"Okay then..." Yamcha turned his back on the pile of metal and sparks to face Bulma. "Where's the dragonball?"

The woman pulled out her radar. "...Not even close to this room."

" _What_?" Krillin groaned. "Oh come on, but this is where the _treasure_ will be!"

"Not likely." Well, she hadn't dealt with pirates much, that was more of a Land of Water thing, but when it came to bandit camps...a place like this wouldn't be nearly secure enough for their loot. Too many people would have access to it, and there would be too much opportunity for theft. They were, after all, a group of _thieves_. "The treasure would be hidden much deeper in this cave, somewhere hard to find."

"Well...the dragonball is deeper in the cave, so I guess we'll find out." Bulma pointed past them toward a tunnel in the cave wall. "It's this way."

(*)

The hunt for the treasure was...eventful, but it wasn't actually succeeding all that much in the 'finding treasure' part. There _had_ to be treasure. He'd heard the rumors on the island about a lost pirate cove where nearby pirates had stolen all sorts of giant gems and gold and then gotten caught and executed after hiding it, and there was a booby trap hall way and a guard robot! Treasure _had_ to be somewhere!

Yet, the house he'd checked hadn't even had _normal_ amounts of cash in it. Other than that damn robot, it had been full of boxes of ammunition and useless things like that, nothing else. The submarine might have treasure hidden in it that the pirates just never had the chance to hide...but of course no one wanted to stick around and search _that_ , because their magic wish granting orbs couldn't possibly have fallen _inside_ it.

Even though they somehow still managed to fall into an underground underwater cave. So take that, convenient excuses! If that Bulma woman didn't have some kind of super accurate radar for the balls, his suggestion would have been as completely reasonable as searching anywhere else in the cave.

Instead, they were searching 'anywhere else'. And 'anywhere else' was a pretty empty stone hallway. Lights lined the roof as they walked, but nothing even looked remotely like a trap or secret door that might hide that stash of booty Sakura had suggested they might have.

But then, that was probably his fault for going and trusting her suggestion. She was, after all, someone who could just make earth and fire out of _nothing. She actually breathed fire_.

It was _really cool_ , admittedly, but still! Monster strength, control of the elements, breathing fire...she had to be some kind of a demon. She was some bizarre demon creature that had duped his great master...pretty much just because she happened to be a woman willing to live with the old man. It was a glaring weakness of his venerable old master. (That and a few other things he'd learned in his almost year living with the old guy)

Ahead, the path split into two opposite ways. Bulma lifted her radar and pointed to the right. "The ball is off in this direction."

But...if there were two paths, there was no reason to think that the two might interconnect again, unless it was around a really big treasure room of some sort. Which might have only one door to it.

Or...more likely, one went off to whatever random room the dragonball had fallen into, and the other led in the other direction. With whatever the dragonball didn't fall in. Like a perfectly enclosed treasure room, safe from water and invasion. He frowned and crossed his arms as the others started off in Bulma's direction.

"I'm going left."

Sakura looked over her shoulder in surprise. "You're what?"

"We're gonna come back this way when we meet up anyway, right?" He huffed. "You guys want to look for the dragonballs. I'm gonna go and look for the treasure." And when he found it, none of the wish seekers could have any. They could go and use their wish on _that_ , instead.


	33. Chapter 33

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, the fact that she was sure he needed someone to babysit him was a little more annoying than that she was only even in an underwater pirate base for her stupid 'wish' and not for the boundless treasure hidden in it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, man. I am excited about the start of the RoF saga in Super. But that sure is a long way off.
> 
> Like really long.

Splitting up probably wasn't the best decision to make in an unknown situation like this one. They didn't exactly have any way to communicate with the other half of the party if one of them fell into an actually dangerous trap or encountered some other trouble.

Admittedly, Goku (and himself) could probably deal with any threat that showed itself in the cave, and from what he'd seen and heard Krillin and Sakura could deal with whatever they ran into, as well...but there was always the _chance_ of some kind of really difficult trap. And they didn't have Pu'ar and Oolong to help get them out of something like that this time around.

But Krillin had been determined to go looking for that treasure, and it was even worse to send just one person off alone. At least it _probably_ wasn't likely to be that dangerous so deep into the base. Unless part of it had just started to collapse.

"Huh?" Goku's voice broke through his thoughts. "It's just water...?"

Ahead of them, the path ended abruptly in a wall and a square...well in the ground. Yamcha blinked, and looked over at Bulma, who stood a step behind him, looking down at the radar. "Hey, are you sure this is the right way?"

She frowned. "Well, yeah. It's only a little ways past this wall."

"So we'll just break through it!"

"No wait!" He took a step forward in an attempt (that might have been futile) to prevent Goku from going on and doing just that...but fortunately the small boy actually _did_ stop as soon as he shouted. "Let's _not_ break through any walls down here."

Unsurprisingly, Goku looked unconvinced, frowning back at himself and Bulma. "...Why not? It's just on the other side of the wall, right?"

"If you break the wall you might destabilize this whole place and crush us." Bulma spoke before he could, clearly having caught on as well. Or...already knew from the start and just hadn't spoken as quickly. She was the smarter one, after all. "Obviously we can get through to the other side just by swimming, It's weird...but that must be what we're supposed to do."

Yamcha shrugged slightly. "Well...that or it's just a bottomless pit, and the way we were supposed to go was the other one..."

" _Yamcha!"_

(*)

"I don't need an escort."

He'd said this already. He felt the need to say it again, because she'd ignored him the first time he'd said it, just staring off into the distance like he wasn't even there. It didn't even make sense why she decided to come along: she didn't want the treasure and he was _totally_ capable of taking care of himself. What were the chances that they'd run into anything at the level of the fighters who were in the World Tournament? Anything less than that, he could handle without even really trying.

Honestly, the fact that she was sure he needed someone to babysit him was a little more annoying than that she was only even in an underwater pirate base for her stupid 'wish' and not for the boundless treasure hidden in it.

This time, at least, she didn't flat out _ignore_ him. Green eyes flickered down toward him, and she offered a faint smile. "Are you sure? Didn't you say something about keeping all the treasure for yourself at some point?"

"Uh-" He coughed and blinked up at her. _Had_ he said that out loud? Maybe. Between looking for the dragonball and just _not believing_ him that it was a pirate base until they were attacked by an actual pirate robot (maybe slightly before that, but it was such a short time it hardly counted) he was pretty sure no one even cared about the treasure but him anyway.

She didn't make any effort to elaborate on her comment, and the echoes of their footsteps took over as the only sound in his ears. Which was kind of creepy, actually, because shouldn't he be hearing the others on the other side of the hallway? Cave? Whatever.

"...Why do _you_ care, anyway? You're leaving, right? You can't just take treasure from one world and spend it in another."

She squinted down at him. "Can't I?"

...

_Could she_?

She seemed unfamiliar with zenni but she'd never grabbed any kind of common rock and acted like it was valuable, or anything. That made sense if she was from some other country, but if she was from another world, wouldn't things be _inherently_ different?

_Not that she was from another world_.

Because that. That would be _dumb_. She looked human, she spoke the right language, and she recognized _almost_ everything a person from Earth should.

He stared up at her. Hard. "What's the _name_ of your planet, huh?"

She blinked down at him. "What...? A name?" She rubbed at her hair expression screwing up slightly in thought. "It's just...the world. It's not like we've _needed_ to name it..."

"Ah!" He pointed at her, feeling a surge of triumph. It made sense now. _sort of_. Maybe somehow she just got displaced from some far off place he'd never heard of, and that's all that happened! "So you don't _know_ you're on another planet! This could be the same world after all!"

She crossed her arms and tilted her head to the side. "...The dragonballs scatter all over the world. If this is the same one, I should see _somewhere_ familiar while looking for them."

Well, at that point, she'd just feel dumb going on some quest to get a magical wish just to waste it on a really dumb wish, wouldn't she? He was about to point that out, but she spoke again before he could.

"How much treasure would you be able to pack into one of those things before the rest of us find the dragonball and leave, if you're on your own?"

-Wait. The subject was about _her_ and her dumb wish, right?

Right.

He stared up at her in confusion. "Wh...what?"

"Expensive treasures are bulky and fragile most of the time." She waved a hand. "Alone, you'd get to carry much less of it than with someone else."

"Are you expecting me to believe you're just here to help me carry treasure?" That...that was even less believable than that she wanted some for herself. Nobody did the pack mule work just to make sure someone else got to have _more_ treasure.

She didn't get to answer, though, as they turned a corner and walked...right into a dead end.

"Aw, _come on_!"

Why would a _pirate base_ waste _this much_ space on some dumb dead end? There weren't even crates or barrels of rum littering the hallway and using it as storage space! What the heck was wrong with these pirates, anyway? Impossible booby trapped hallway hidden in a random underwater cliff side, robot defenders with way more fuel than they should have had, and _wrong way hallways!_

Aside from being pirates in the first place, something was _seriously_ wrong with whoever it was that had this base.

He gave an annoyed grumble and marched up to the blank wall. "There's _got_ to be something! No one just builds a pointless dead end like this!"

"Well, it could be a maze." Even Sakura sounded a little bit skeptical, and he liked to think that was because that idea wa _s_ just _stupid_ for a base hidden in an underwater cliff side. There were spacial constraints! And they were pirates! What kind of pirates sat around and thought up mazes to put in their base? _Dumb ones_.

Dumb pirates who got caught after hiding their treasure and never got to spend said treasure.

The ground clicked.

Dumb pirates who liked floor traps. Like trap doors that were pointlessly stuck _right at the end_ of an obvious dead end and opened up when a person stood on them long enough.

" _Aww-_ "

(*)

Mostly, she just didn't feel comfortable with Krillin wandering off in a potentially decaying underwater cove alone. She wasn't all that comfortable with Bulma and Yamcha doing it, either, but Goku had proven to be _incredibly_ hardy while they were going through the tower, and likely more than capable of looking out for those two. And Yamcha wasn't exactly a slouch in most situations they might encounter, either.

It wasn't that she doubted Krillin's abilities...but he hadn't shown quite the same level of resilience as Goku yet, and as one person alone it would be more difficult for him to simply avoid any danger that sprung itself on him without warning.

Like, for instance, a trap door.

" _Krillin_!"

She jumped forward as his shout echoed through the hall, but he had gotten too far ahead of her, and he was already out of her reach by the time she reached the hole. It was too dark to see what was down at the bottom, or even how far the drop went. Given it was a trap, however, the likelihood that the fall would be safe was _very_ unlikely.

She immediately launched herself down after the vanishing figure.

(*)

The swim wasn't all that long, but the water was so weirdly _cold_ that by the time he broke the surface of the water on the other side of the dark well, he found himself gasping for breath. So...at least it wasn't some kind of bottomless pit, or a death trap that led people into a deep tunnel and then didn't give them a place to get back their air.

Because that would _really_ suck.

Things that didn't suck so much, though, included the rather large wooden chest sitting on the shore not far from them. "Hey, guys! Check it out!"

Bulma, who had surfaced last and looked understandably more worn out by the swim than Goku, shook the excess water out of her hair and then looked in the direction he indicated. "Oh, wow! A treasure chest!"

Goku swam on ahead and climbed to the shore a few moments before he himself climbed up out of the water.

"What do you know..." He scrubbed his hand through his hair to shake out some of the excess water, just in case he also looked a bit like a water logged puppy as Goku did. "I guess Krillin was right."

Goku glanced over his shoulder in the direction they came from, expression thoughtful. "What was the way Krillin looked?"

"Probably the living quarters." Bulma's tone was dismissive, as her gaze seemed pretty firmly on that treasure. Yamcha couldn't really blame her, though, his bandit instincts made the prize, now that it was present, pretty important.

He marched over to it and pushed the heavy wooden lid open. With...only a little bit of help from Goku, who was so short that he _physically_ couldn't do too much to lift it if he were on his own anyway. Inside a wealth of treasures sparkled up at them in the dim light of the cavern. It was such a small room that only one light hung from the ceiling, but it was still enough to display the dull sheen of the gold, and make the diamonds and other gems sparkle impressively.

And _damn_ were those some _huge_ gems. How did the pirates even get their _hands_ on this stuff, let alone lug it all through that path and _swim_ with it?

"I don't see the dragonball in here..." Goku's voice sounded disappointed enough that it was clear he'd actually thought it might be _there_. Despite the impossibility of the ball landing _inside_ a completely intact box.

"Oh, no." Bulma shook her head. She dug the radar out of her...panties. If anyone other than Goku actually was around for her stripping down to go swimming he'd be a bit uncomfortable with all of their respective states of undress, honestly. But then, it wasn't as if any of them had _expected_ to need to go underwater on a short trip out, so they were probably just lucky not to have had to strip down _before_ that point. "It's a little bit further on. Probably in that puddle over there."

"Over there?" Goku turned toward the far corner of the room she indicated, just as a shout echoed from the distance.

A rather familiar and feminine shout.

Yamcha turned toward the direction of the shout without really thinking. It sounded close by, but they should have been quite a distance away. Then again, the other path could have twisted and turned in any way. "That was..."

" _Sakura and Krillin!_ "


	34. Chapter 34

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She stumbled to her feet and sprinted after him, leaping away from the squishy substance just as something swiped through the air at her. An arm, probably. Below them, an angry looking eye nearly the size of Krillin's entire body glared up at them, glowing a very slight yellow. The light that allowed them to see anything at all in the cave was probably coming from him. It.

Honestly, the fall wasn't as bad as it could have been. She had long enough to grab Krillin, pull him toward herself and turn to shield him, and then she slammed into something...springy. And kind of slimy. She didn't even have time to access her seal and transfer mitotic regeneration to him. Nor did she _need_ to.

Slowly, she opened one eye and struggled to adapt to the darkness of the cave. Krillin, too, remained still for a few moments, as if he wasn't certain whether they were harmed by the fall or not. Eventually, though, he flailed out of her grip and pushed himself up and away from her. "I'm fine! I'm fine, let go!"

She frowned slightly, sitting up once Krillin was out of the way. Convenient as it was that they weren't impaled on spikes or something else horrible...why would there be a trap that dropped onto something excessively _safe_? Maybe if there were something before that had become defunct she could believe the trap being essentially harmless...but a cushion...?

The ground rumbled.

" _Finally..._ it's been so long since I've had a good catch."

The ground hadn't rumbled, it had _spoken_.

Krillin gave a brief shriek, and then immediately leapt away to a dimly lit ledge nearby, away from...the giant creature they'd landed on. "I-It's a giant _octopus_!"

She stumbled to her feet and sprinted after him, leaping away from the squishy substance just as something swiped through the air at her. An arm, probably. Below them, an angry looking eye nearly the size of Krillin's entire body glared up at them, glowing a very slight yellow. The light that allowed them to see anything at all in the cave was probably coming from him. It.

"You don't think running will help you escape, will you?" Its laughter echoed off of the walls, and the sound of slithering and splashing water filled the darkness. "Oh no, I've become _so hungry..._ I'll eat you both up in one gulp."

Krillin grit his teeth and slid into a defensive posture, "This isn't good. Giant octopi hide is _ridiculously_ thick and tough!"

So, cutting it would probably be better than hitting it. Unless someone could hit it _really hard_. Like her. "Come on, let's hurry up and take this thing out before the others get too far away."

The octopus pulled itself up slightly, raising its eyes to settle on them more firmly. "You...should have listened to the tiny snack!"

Water splashed violently in the darkness, and she jumped away from the place she stood, the opposite direction of where she saw Krillin disappear into. There was no telling what the rest of the terrain was like, but standing in place would make it too likely to be caught by one of his many arms, and from there it would be harder to fight. As it was, she landed _on_ one of the flailing appendages, and had to immediately jump again.

Killing him probably wouldn't be too difficult, if they had to. Huge or not, it was still simply an octopus. She'd dealt with worse. But if she did, the dim light of his eyes would be gone, and there'd be no other opportunity to explore the room. Returning by going back up probably wouldn't be that hard...but if the dragonball was in an awkward place, not in an easy to find room...whatever this thing used to get in and out of the cave might actually provide a good way to find it.

And there was the off chance Krillin might actually find his treasure this way after all.

In the darkness, consumed by the gloom of the cave, she heard Krillin give an anguished shout, and the beast next to her gave a triumphant cackle. "You're _mine_!"

She could only just make out the quick movement of his distant arm as it swung violently into a cave wall, carrying its passenger tightly in its grip. " _Krillin_!"

No matter how easily the creature could be beaten, a human could only take so much damage themselves. Those kind of impacts...

She slid slightly on stone as she turned, and raced toward where he was held, gathering up chakra in her hand. A tentacle swept in her direction, and she flipped over it. "Let him _go_!" Her fist collided with the tentacle, and the beast gave a roar of pain, as the impact caused an explosion of force. The half of his leg holding Krillin spiraled into the darkness, and the one attached to him immediately curled inward protectively.

"What a _monster!"_ The octopus actually sounded horrified. As if protecting the person she was watching over had somehow been something terrible of _her_ to do.

She glanced over her shoulder in the direction Krillin fell, searching for signs of movement, but for the moment he seemed still. Maybe he was unconscious, maybe he was still struggling out of the grip of the heavy arm. Two wet and slimy arms curled around her as she turned her attention back to the beast, and pinned her arms and legs together.

"I...I'll _crush the life out of you_!" The creature growled in anger, as it lifted her into the air above its body.

Breaking free of things like this wasn't exactly her specialty. Chakra worked a certain way in the human body, and the primary method it was expelled through was hands and feet. Certain geniuses were capable of using it in any form all over their body, like Neji Hyuuga had been. She wasn't one of those geniuses.

Using her strength like this was...significantly more difficult.

She grunted, as the air in her lungs was forcibly expelled by the tightening coil around her chest. There were many ways out of this, and some were...far more uncomfortable than others. Getting repeatedly crushed or ripped in half to escape? Not something she wanted to ever explore.

It _was_ an option...but she'd reserve that one for a last resort. Particularly given that it didn't put her in a very good position to protect Krillin once he was of sound mind enough to try attacking again.

Really, it was much more difficult to use her strength in a position like this than most others.

_How irritating_.

Her seal burst to live on her forehead as she screamed, and strength surged through her arms and legs.

"Wh-what-?!" Its exclamation echoed off of the walls almost as much as her own scream did. New strength forced its way into its limbs, but his time sitting alone in this place, waiting to be fed prey instead of hunting, did no good for its strength. With a final shout, she forced its arm over her head and away from her.

She reached down immediately and ripped its second arm away from its body to free her legs, and then pulled up her fist as she fell down toward it. For an octopus, its wide eyes seemed actually pretty good at expressing its shock, and then its horror.

Her fist slammed through all of its thick hide and protective blubber without even slowing down, and crushed it inward even as the rest of its body cushioned her fall and forced her descent to slow and eventually stop. Dark blood splashed up across her arm and face, and its remaining arms fell about the cave with resounding crashes. Slowly, somewhat regrettably, the light glowing out of its huge eyes faded away, and she was left standing in complete darkness.

Lack of visibility aside, she understood the layout of the room well enough to navigate her way back to where Krillin had landed. "Krillin..."

He gave a pained groan from slightly ahead of her. So...he did survive after all. She'd expected him to, but his silence...had started to worry her a bit.

"Are you okay?"

"Ugh..." He groaned again, and she heard him briefly struggle with the arm of the octopus still wrapped around him. "Uh. Is it...darker in here than before?"

His words didn't sound slurred, so that was also a good sign. Probably, he'd be fine. "The creature is dead. It's what was providing the light at all."

"Ah... _great_." The air stirred slightly, and she felt him walk up closer to her. "Can't you light something on fire again?"

"We don't have anything to use as a torch." Well, she could _use_ fire jutsu, but without something to burn like wood, it would only last for a moment or two. She already knew the way to get back up to the top, provided they could safely navigate the slippery surface of the octopus without falling down and getting hurt. Probably, they wouldn't need anything like that. "If we're just careful we can probably make it back without the light."

He sighed, and muttered under his breath. "Yeah... but now we can't go looking for treasure here."

"Do you want to go fumbling through here in the dark and look for it?"

"...No."

She nodded slightly, quirking her lips into an amused smile. "Come on, I think I know the way to get back."

"You _think you know_?" Said as if he actually _did_ know.

She reached down and touched his...head. She'd been aiming for his shoulder, but she slightly misjudged his height and position. She was, after all, a little more used to dealing with Goku than Krillin. "Come on and take my hand. If we get separated we could fall." It might not be so bad falling from the top of the octopus...but then again there could be some jagged rocks or a pitfall she'd missed.

"H-hold your _hand_? What are you talking about?!" Krillin's voice raised to a slightly higher pitch as she spoke, and he stumbled a step away from her into the darkness.

_Really_. She didn't completely fail to understand his response, but in the middle of a mission was no time to worry about something like holding a teammate's hand _to get out of a dangerous situation_.

"Do you have any rope?" She hissed after him, glaring somewhat uselessly into the dark.

He was quiet a moment before he spoke again. "J-just talk and I'll follow your sounds!"

He marched past her in the darkness and continued with a determined tone of voice. "Now...let's just get out of here and find some _treasure_."

From the other side of the cave, something splashed violently in the water, and she immediately spun toward it, fists gripping in anticipation of another attack.

"Krillin!" The voice that echoed through the room was anything but monstrous. "Sakura?"

(*)

Frankly, he was more than a little worried that the puddle of water Goku jumped into wouldn't actually lead anywhere near to the source of the shouts in the distance, but naturally Goku hadn't left him with any time to say that kind of thing. And maybe that was fair: there was no telling how long it would take to get to them by back tracking, or what splits that other path had that would make it harder to find them. The off chance that the cave might be naturally interconnected in some way by natural wells the way the artificial one had been to the treasure room was probably worth the risk.

Bulma stood a little distance away from him, expression worried, gaze flickering between the place Goku went and himself. The cave had grown quiet again but...that wasn't necessarily a _good_ thing. It could mean anything, without having any more context than 'distant shouts of alarm'.

"Do you think...there might be more sentries that way?"

He frowned at the wall. Like he could just magically will himself to have x-ray vision (which wouldn't be a half bad wish, if he could do it without sounding _totally perverted_...). "I don't know. It might be another trap that way, if the treasure is over here."

She placed her hand over her forehead and shook her head. "We shouldn't have split up...there's no telling what dangers this kind of place could have!"

"Yeah, well...that's what I said..." He muttered the statement under his breath because...well, it didn't really matter now, did it? They'd been insistent on splitting off, and now everyone had been cut off from each other in some kind of danger. Just like he expected.

_No._

He shook his head quickly. Those three were all Muten Roshi's students, and he knew full well how good Goku was as a fighter. Whatever they might encounter, they could probably handle it. Assuming it wasn't just an old fashioned death trap.

Assuming that.

He coughed. "...Just in case, maybe we should go collect the dragonball now."

"Huh?" Bulma looked up at him in confusion.

"We don't know what's over there. If the cave is collapsing or something, we might not have time to go looking for it. So...where did you say it was?"

"O-oh...um." She shook herself slightly, and then frowned in determination down at the dragon radar. "It's over in that corner. I think it's in that other little pool Goku didn't go through."

"Got it."

He needed to be positive. Determined. They weren't dead, they'd show up soon and Krillin would distract everyone just trying to get all the treasure they could carry and totally make everyone forget about the dragonball. Getting that was important. His teammates were fine, probably.

After all, no matter what else...at least while they were underwater, they didn't need to worry about Goku seeing the full moon.


	35. Chapter 35

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> His girlfriend stared at him really intently. He was...pretty sure she knew the real reason he wanted to go along was to keep tabs on Goku, now that he had his tail back. He was also pretty sure she looked more suspicious than that conclusion should have required her to be. That part...made him a little nervous.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Catching up on lost time.

Navigating an underwater corridor in the dark wasn't the easiest thing she'd ever done, but there simply wasn't any better choice. None of the three of them had anything that could provide light underwater. Other than, apparently, the kamehameha. But even Goku had realized that was too destructive and short lived to bother using.

Fortunately, it seemed their two paths had curved enough that they nearly met in the middle, and the swim wasn't all that long from one room to the other. Whether that was an intentional design or one that happened on accident, though, she couldn't really say. The base was rather...sparse. And odd in general.

Even the treasure room was rather _unimpressive_. Though Krillin had been more than impressed by what was inside the single chest in the room. Given that he'd just been slammed into a couple of walls and they didn't have any reason to rush, she couldn't really begrudge him the opportunity to fill his capsules with treasure before they actually needed to leave.

"An _octopus_?" Yamcha frowned, glancing between herself and Krillin, who was halfway buried in the chest, kicking his legs to reach deeper. "Considering how old everything else is in here, how did it even survive that long without food?"

"It couldn't have." Bulma, finally finished putting the dragonball away in a secure looking pack, walked up to where they spoke. "Obviously there's another exit in that room that would have let him out to eat other things between feedings.

"So...it only just happened to be there when we fell in."

"...Probably." She shrugged. "Maybe it sleeps in there. Or...did. You did say it took a minute to respond, right?"

Yamcha gave a sudden laugh, and shook his head. "So what you're saying is, there's two huge, unguarded exits, and we found the one small entrance full of traps."

"That...that's-" Bulma choked and then scoffed dismissively, and finally waved her hand, dismissing his statement. "We were following the dragonball, not looking for this cave. The other exits might be a long ways off. The one that huge submarine exits through is probably _way_ off, or it'd be too easily found."

Yamcha shrugged. "Well it _would_ be underwater."

She crossed her arms and gave a harrumph of offense.

Sakura frowned slightly, propping her hand on her hip. "If the exit's far away in that main chamber...it's not going to be an option to use the bigger submarine to get back out, then."

"Oh, no way." Bulma shook her head quickly. "I mean, I could probably do it, like I said before. But there's no guarantee it's even seaworthy. After all, if their treasure's still here it means they were probably caught or killed while they were out raiding things. Why leave a perfectly good ship behind? It's probably less seaworthy than whatever they did use."

Yamcha gave a slight nod. "That...and it's a pirate ship. It's gotta have more booby traps and tricks in it than anything else, right?"

That...was probably true, considering their dependence on the ships.

Although...it couldn't have been _that_ bad, if it was being used regularly. It would be far too much trouble to arm and disarm complex traps like the one from the original hallway, or even pointless trap doors leading into unpleasant things. It would get in the way with normal procedures.

" _But_.." Bulma gave a small, mischievous grin. "There's no reason we have to walk _all_ the way back to that entrance. I brought the submarine with us. We can ride it out from the main room and see just _where_ that big exit _is_."

Goku huffed, wandering back from where he'd been ineffectually helping Krillin gather loot. "We've got the dragonball now, right? Can we get going to the next one, already?"

Sakura glanced down at him, and then back at Bulma. "Where _is_ the next closest one?"

"Um..." Bulma glanced down at the device in her hand, and pressed the top button a few times. "It looks like...well, it's not really _close_ , but it's off to the west."

"If it's far away we should start getting going already!" Goku insisted, speaking over whatever it was that Bulma mumbled to herself a moment later.

" _Okay_!" Krillin shouted from the treasure chest. "I _get it_ , jeez. I'm full up now anyway, but..." The small fighter dropped from the chest to the ground with a frown and a thump. "Not _all_ of us are gonna go running off to some other world with wishes, you know. The rest of us have to find a way to keep living _here_."

Yamcha's expression was about as skeptical as she felt, considering just how much treasure he must have in his pockets already. He scoffed lightly. "Just try not to lose them when you're swimming."

"Uh-!" Krillin startled, and then immediately ran over to where Bulma stood. "Hey, you've got a backpack, right? I'll give you... _some_ of it if you let me use it!"

Goku had already started toward the largest body of water in the room, and so she followed after him. With _some_ amusement. Considering the wealth that Bulma's family seemed to possess...she doubted somewhat that the woman really wanted any of the treasure.

(*)

"You want to _what_?"

He shrugged slightly. "It's like I said. It's been a long time since I had an actual adventure, and this one wasn't so bad. I might as well go along for the rest of the dragonballs."

His girlfriend stared at him _really intently_. He was...pretty sure she knew the real reason he wanted to go along was to keep tabs on Goku, now that he had his tail back. He was also pretty sure she looked more suspicious than that conclusion should have required her to be. That part...made him a little nervous.

"There's not even _room_ on the nimbus cloud!"

Sakura spoke next, shrugging slightly. "I suppose we could try trading the submarine back for the watch. It's not too bad with just one extra person."

Krillin snorted. Yamcha, too, doubted that Roshi would give up the potential to sneak places he didn't belong for some banged up cheap submarine. Goku, unsurprisingly, wrinkled his nose. It wasn't exactly the _best_ plan to go riding along on a cloud he couldn't ride _himself_ if something bad were to happen...but leaving Goku alone to wander the world and wait for him to rampage at _any moment_ (that a full moon happened to exist...) was an even worse plan.

Bulma fell quiet for a few moments. He recognized the expression on her face. That was definitely the face she made when she was being thoughtful and didn't _want_ to be. "Well... _maybe_ I can make more watches for us, but there's no way I'll get them done in time for us to go back out before school tomorrow."

He frowned. Bulma _had_ said that...but honestly, he was a little surprised she _cared_ , considering how often she ditched class early and left him studying alone. She was already smart enough not to worry about going, after all. And beside that... "Honestly...I don't really care if I go." He shrugged. "Finding the dragonballs before the wrong people do is more important, anyway."

Bulma's shoulders slumped slightly, and she sighed. "I guess you're right."

Goku, who squinted up at both of them suspiciously, spoke next. "...But...on the way back, you're both gonna have to hang on to us to get home."

Bulma blinked, as if she'd completely forgotten that it was more than a spacial issue, and then, _for some reason_ , directed an irritated glare right at _him_. " _Well_! W-we'll just have to split up who we're holding on to! Won't we?"

He wasn't completely sure why, but he had a strong feeling whatever answer he tried to give her just now would be wrong.

(*)

And...just like that, they were gone again. Somehow two people who were reasonable enough _not_ to go along with Goku and Sakura's crazy quest the first time around were now dragged into it enough to fight over who got to sit where on that _creepy golden cloud of death_. One day that thing was just going to reject all of them, and they'd plummet to the earth like the dumb idiots they all were for trusting it.

When that happened, he'd be here, or in a world tournament, or on some famous show because he'd made something of himself with what he had (and his fabulous wealth), not dying.

He wouldn't even feel a little bad for it if he heard about them all getting themselves killed.

Probably.

...At least he wouldn't care if they really did go and get the dragonballs together and wish that monstrous girl out of the world instead of using it for something useful and noteworthy (like being king of the world or something).

He dropped back onto the sand with a sigh, and stared up at the blue sky.

Even if there _had_ been room, there was no way he'd actually have wanted to go on that stupid quest of theirs anyway. After all, who else even _knew_ about the dragonballs to compete with them for a wish, anyway?

(*)

She sighed, and stared up at the ceiling in the relative darkness of the briefs house. Compared to the cavern, it really wasn't that dark. She could navigate the entire building with this level of darkness and have no difficulty at all, even if it was constantly changing around her.

Not that it mattered, anyway.

This would be the third dragonball, once they got to it. Considering the pace they were going...it was possible she might actually be returning to her home in...two weeks. A part of her already felt hyped up and tense, as if going home would drop her back into the battle where she left it. A part of her felt even more tense wondering just what she'd be walking into again.

Sasuke had made it back to Naruto, it wasn't really a question that they had managed to defeat Kaguya together. And she trusted Naruto, whatever darkness it was that she saw hiding in Sasuke's eyes still, she knew Naruto would be able to reach out to him and deal with it.

Nearly a year...

The world would be healing by now. After all the destruction passed, the rebuilding would already have begun again. Her name would probably have made it onto the stone of heroes by now, as would the memorial of the other shinobi who 'died' in the battle.

Or, maybe Sasuke and Naruto would have known she was lost, and spent time looking for her.

She would have laughed, but the sound would have risked disturbing Goku, who was sprawled out asleep next to her as he usually tended to be. _Honestly_. She knew better than to think that anyone would come looking for her even if they could. Especially Sasuke.

Maybe she still had her things where they belonged waiting for her to return, maybe she was thought to be missing. Maybe her parents actually missed her by now. _He_ wouldn't miss her. She wasn't childish enough to think that _he_ would. A year wasn't that long to miss, really. It would be easy to return.

This world...whatever it was...she could spend time over there researching it. Almost certainly, the Hokage and the others in Konoha would want to know about it, want to figure out what the hell this place _was_...

Maybe, eventually, they'd actually develop a jutsu to come and visit again, and she could see what these people, the ones who weren't Team 7 but almost felt like it sometimes, had managed to become in all the time she was away.

Goku snorted and rolled on his side, unconsciously balling up against the warmth her body provided.

After less than a year...depending on just how long she was gone, none of the people here might even really remember her. Or maybe they would. Being in a strange new world was definitely more memorable than knowing a girl who claimed to be from a strange and different world, but...how many times in their lifetime would they go on an all out adventure looking for wish granting dragonballs?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter jumped around so much it jumped about fifteen manga chapters. Take that pacing.
> 
> And Penguin Village.
> 
> take that so much.
> 
> That's one segment I am happy not to be including. That said, worry not, those of you familiar with Dragonball. The army will not be so easily avoided. (Nor, should I say, am I making any attempt to do so. They have been avoided so far purely by dumb luck.)
> 
> It's not really a filler chapter. It's more of a wrap up chapter to Pirate's Cove. What in the world will Krillin do with all that wealth?


	36. Chapter 36

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not far in the distance...about where the dragon ball should have been, stood a brilliantly colored and heavily engraved pillar.

She found it more than a little weird to be traveling with two tiny people. Moreso than the flying cat who'd attached itself to Goku's arm when it became tired trying to keep up with the Nimbus. In fairness, she'd gotten somewhat used to Pu'ar in the month she spent at Capsule Corporation. Tiny people riding along with them, however, were new.

It was unsurprising that the cat chose to linger on Goku's arm rather than her own, given that Yamcha was with him and Bulma with her. It meant, however, that she ended up the one holding the radar as they flew, just so that Bulma could keep an eye on it, should it be necessary.

The sun was beginning to set already, but the glowing dot on the radar was much closer than the one in the north had been, most likely, they'd reach their target before the end of the day. Which was probably best, because figuring sleeping arrangements in the small house Bulma had lent them would be...uncomfortable. At least a village would have an inn of some sort.

"Whoa..." Goku's voice suddenly broke through her thoughts, and he pointed ahead of them. "Look at that!"

Not far in the distance...about where the dragon ball should have been, stood a brilliantly colored and heavily engraved pillar. It was certainly _not_ a tower, like before, but it reached...

She craned her neck upward toward the clouds.

"It's like it goes on forever..." Bulma spoke from her chest. "I hadn't heard of anything that _tall_. It shouldn't be able to be that tall and that thin!"

"Do you think the dragonball's probably up top?" Yamcha called from the other side of Goku.

The question was probably directed at Bulma, but she glanced back down at the radar herself anyway. From the distance they were, it was too hard to tell. "That'd probably be too convenient."

"Although..." Bulma crossed her small arms, peeking out from a front pocket Sakura had no other use for. "Considering they scatter from the sky, looking at the highest altitude isn't a bad idea."

She had a feeling that Krillin would have said something about their last dragonball having been inside an underwater cave if he were present. But there wasn't really any point to say that. After all, the ocean hadn't _had_ such a tall structure for the ball to fall onto instead.

"Should we go to the top?" Goku looked over his shoulder up at her.

"No." Bulma spoke the same word, as well. Likely for the same reason. "If it's that small all the way to the top, even if the dragonball landed up there, it would have been knocked down to the bottom by now."

"Okay! Then let's go down to the woods there!"

He didn't wait for any response before the cloud made a sudden, sharp turn downward. The spiral was something she'd grown used to in her previous trips with Goku, but Bulma gave a short shriek of surprise. It was probably a bit more dizzying when one was clinging to fabric than when one was properly seated in the cloud.

The pillar (and signal of the dragonball) was still a small distance away from where they landed, but not far enough to _need_ to ride the cloud further. She carefully helped Bulma to the ground once she herself dropped off of the cloud, and a moment later Yamcha appeared, a step away from Goku.

" _Man_ that feels weird." He grimaced and rolled his shoulders. "I still think we should have just taken a plane capsule since we were back home anyway."

"The Nimbus is faster." She couldn't see his face, but Goku's voice sounded a little offended.

Before any more could be said about it, she started ahead toward the pillar and the glowing dot on the radar. "It looks like it landed a little distance away from the pillar after all."

"Hey, guys..." Yamcha said, expression drawing tight with sudden concern. "Do you guys smell something weird?"

(*)

It just _bothered_ him when Goku _and_ Sakura started sniffing at the air and identifying things he couldn't...but the time and place for being freaked out about the pink haired woman's weird abilities wasn't this one.

This place...was... _used to be_ a village of some sort. It must have been somewhat nomadic, as what remained of the structures seemed fairly light and easy to move, but it was still clear that it had housed a small civilization, perhaps a village.

Had.

The faint smell of smoke remained in the air, and empty, charred wooden structures clung to each other in an echo of what they would have been before, ready to collapse at the slightest provocation. Bodies, those who must have lived in the settlement, littered the clearing around the base of the tower. He couldn't tell from where he was standing what had killed most of them, but...considering the blood that soaked the reddened grass, it seemed likely to him that the burning had been symbolic. Or simply a method to round up the citizens into one place.

For a few moments, everyone remained as still as the dead.

Sakura sprinted ahead into the village without warning, and immediately crouched over the body of one of the children. Could it be...one might have survived after all?

He wasn't certain if he was the next one to move or not, but only a few moments passed before he and the others also knelt around the child. Sakura's face was a mask of concentration, and her hands pressed down against the small child on the ground in front of her in a manner he'd never seen before. It didn't seem to be providing any medical benefit, unless she was actually trying to stop bleeding even worse than the places she wasn't touching.

"Sakura..." he might not have been a medic, but out in the forest without any supplies...there just wasn't any way they could help.

" _Shut up_!" Her voice snapped through the clearing with such ferocity that Pu'ar immediately floated further away, and even Bulma jumped slightly.

A few seconds later, the faint rasp of the young boy's voice became a sudden cough, and then a series of stronger coughs. Color slowly returned to the small face, and finally his eyes blinked open. When Sakura lifted her hands away from the boy...there wasn't even a wound under her hands.

"How did you-?" Bulma spoke before he could, voicing the same thing he was about to.

Sakura simply gestured for her to be silent. For...once, Bulma listened. Whether that had anything to do with Sakura's either shout or whether it was just because the child began to speak, however...he couldn't really say. And she'd probably _never_ tell the truth if he asked anyway.

"Wh...who..." The boy looked at each of them in turn, confusion and exhaustion clouding his eyes.

"My name's Goku." Goku been silent the entire time, simply watching Sakura, and...actually didn't even sound that impressed that she somehow _undid injuries_. By...using that 'more advanced than ki' thing. Obviously. That, or magic. But there were things he refused to believe in, and wish granting dragons were the extent of it. "These are Bulma, Yamcha, Sakura, and over there is Pu'ar."

"We're friends." Sakura assured, voice gentler than he'd heard before. "Can you tell us what happened?"

As a first question...he thought that was a little bit of a waste.

Obviously, someone else had started looking for dragonballs. Someone who _really_ should not get those dragonballs.

So... _exactly_ the kind of person who would have the knowledge and the resources to go looking for those dragonballs on their own.

(*)

She hadn't really _wanted_ to display her healing abilities so openly, but...the young villager, the only survivor she'd been able to see from where she was standing, had been fading fast. Perhaps the correct answer, as a ninja, would have been to allow the child to die to protect her secret.

She liked to think the appropriate response was to trade the knowledge of her healing jutsu for the knowledge of the dragonball, and exactly where the Red Ribbon Army was that committed the atrocity in front of them. Because it _certainly_ was the Red Ribbon Army that did it.

Interrogating a child surrounded by the bodies of their friends and family, however, wasn't the easiest thing to do. Ultimately, she, Bulma, and the child had fallen back into the forest while Yamcha and Goku took care of temporary burial and clean up. Pu'ar, naturally, remained with Yamcha.

The child sat against a tree, knees pulled up to his chest.

"Hey..." Bulma knelt down in front of him. "Like Goku said, my name is Bulma. What's yours?"

The child looked away from her and remained silent for a few moments more, before finally speaking, voice quiet but steady. "...It's Upa."

"They were the Red Ribbon Army, weren't they?" She spoke before Bulma could. A third force, one just as bad as that army...that would be trouble. That many more villages would end up destroyed and terrorized by power hungry forces before she and Goku could deal with them.

The child tensed slightly, and Bulma turned toward her suddenly, eyes wide with surprise. "The _Red Ribbon Army_? Why would it-"

"It was them." Upa nodded slightly, looking up at her. "They came a while ago looking for something, and father drove them away. Then more came back, and they threatened all of the sacred land."

Bulma's expression darkened slightly in concern and a flickering of fear, before she turned her attention back to Upa. "Was it a dragonball they were looking for?"

The child's eyes widened, and he drew back away from her. "Y-you want it too?"

She spoke before Bulma could, as...under the circumstances, it would be difficult to convince Upa they were any different if they admitted to searching for it. "You're not the first place that army attacked looking for one of them. We want to know if that's what they were after, too."

He quieted after a moment, gaze dropping to the ground, and then nodded. "The man...killed father, and then told us to give it to them."

"You didn't? Why?"

He slouched slightly. "Father didn't give it away. If no one knew where it was, we couldn't give it to him, and then...they would leave."

Or kill everyone in a fit of spite. But then, it wasn't a surprise that Upa wouldn't realize that. And...even if they'd given it to the army, it was likely they'd all have received the same fate anyway. Considering what 'General White' had been planning to do once the cooperative village had found him the dragonball.

"They don't have the dragonball?"

Upa shook his head, and then started to sniffle, tears springing to his eyes. "I-...everyone...if I hadn't-"

Bulma, who had been quiet, expression thoughtful and troubled, suddenly lurched forward and pulled the small child into a hug. Whether Upa actually wanted said hug or not. "Oh, no! That isn't true at all!"

"She's right." Yamcha spoke as he stepped into view from the direction of the ruined village. Blood, soot, and dirt covered his clothes and smudged his hands and cheeks. The look in his eyes was harder than she'd seen from him before. "The Red Ribbon Army are _monsters_. And we're gonna make them _pay_."

Goku appeared a moment later, looking similarly disheveled. She'd seen Goku angry before. The look in his eyes now... brought up memories that made the air turn cold and bitter around her.

"I'm gonna kill _all of them_."

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Where is the dragonball hidden? Which officer managed to kill Bora and destroy the village? How is Sakura going to handle Saiyans being driven by rage and vengeance? At least one of these questions may be answered next time.


	37. Chapter 37

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "There's a problem..." Bulma stared down at something in her hand as she spoke, voice hushed but urgent. "The dragonball just started moving."

No one else around her seemed bothered by the darkness in Goku's expression. But then, revenge was commonplace and accepted whether it was the Shinobi world or another. Even she wouldn't have given it another thought if she hadn't seen Sasuke consumed by his desire for it. Of course...it was rather hypocritical of her, wasn't it? She never thought about it when _she_ sought revenge.

But...perhaps it was simply the way he'd felt when he said it. The intensity passed after a few moments, and while anger was still clearly written in his expression, and his sentiment hadn't changed, she didn't feel the twist in her gut that reminded her of a stranger with Sasuke's face standing in the forest and on a bridge.

She shook her head slightly, finally tuning back into the conversation going on around her. "First, we need a place to take Upa. He's too young to be brought into the fight."

Upa struggled to sit up more, expression screwing up into offense. "I want to-"

"No." Bulma shook her head. "Would your father want you to go and face an army without him?"

The child blinked up at the other woman, and then slowly dropped his head in defeat.

"Still, it's not safe to stay here, either." Yamcha frowned. "He'll need somewhere new to stay."

"I don't want to live anywhere else!" Upa shook his head furiously. "The Sacred Land is my home. It's my duty to stay here! I...I'm the only one left who can..."

"Kid..."

Goku spoke over whatever Yamcha was about to say. "We'll bring them back!"

She looked up at the taller boy, who marched toward the one in front of her. "What?"

"Bring them back?" Upa frowned in confusion.

"The dragonballs...they can grant any wish. I'm _sure_ that means they could bring back the village if we asked them to." He glanced over at Bulma, expression hopeful.

Bulma frowned slightly, expression thoughtful. "Well...if _any_ wish is possible, then...reviving the dead would be, too. It's worth trying, at least."

He nodded quickly. "Okay! So you just have to stay at Bulma's until we bring the village back!"

The small child stared down at his hands, quiet for several moments, before he finally spoke. "O...okay..." He didn't sound very confident, but then...the people around him _had_ just suggested reviving the dead. Even she found herself doubtful. Death was...it wasn't something she'd found to be a good to reverse.

"Okay...um...let me see if I brought that capsule..."

Goku shook his head quickly. "Nimbus can do it, right? Nimbus!" He cupped his hands over his mouth and the golden cloud sailed into view a moment or two later. "Can you take Upa to Bulma's house?"

Yamcha gave the cloud a skeptical look. "...Can he ride it...?"

The look Goku gave him was deeply unimpressed. The child seemed not to notice either the comment or the look, walking hesitantly up to the cloud and reaching out to touch it. "It's...a...cloud?"

Goku nodded quickly. "Its name is Nimbus! Don't worry, it's fast, and you won't fall off if you're nice."

" _Hey_!" Yamcha snapped.

" _Goku._ " Which was...Bulma.

He stuck out his tongue. Which was something a bit amusing, with his comment about being 'nice' enough to ride the cloud. Said cloud lowered slightly to help the small child climb on to it. And...somewhat unsurprisingly, didn't immediately dump the child back onto the ground once he got seated. Whatever the judgement of the cloud was to allow a person to ride it, she couldn't see why a small child wouldn't be allowed to.

"Okay, Nimbus! Go take Upa to Bulma's house!"

The golden cloud spiraled obediently off into the sky, and as it disappeared Bulma gave a soft sigh. "...Before he left, we probably should have asked him where that army went."

(*)

Despite the sound logic of Bulma's comment...looking for the army wasn't really a problem. Whatever base the army used to attack from would still be manned, given the recent nature of the attack...and if, as he suspected was true from the position of the dragonball, they'd yet to find that dragonball...they'd remain in the area until they could.

The problem with the situation came from what Bulma had yet to say (but must have known, given her expression). The Red Ribbon Army was the most ferocious, most feared army in the world. Any army which could make _that_ kind of a mark so quickly was _dangerous_. And they were about to walk into the midst of it and pick a fight.

He couldn't say he didn't _want_ to, not after seeing that village, and not considering the fact that the army wanted the _dragonballs_ \- the worst thing next to Emperor Pilaf giving it a second try. But...he wasn't unaware of just what a tall order such a thing was. Even with Goku's amazing improvement and skill, he doubted that Goku could go alone. He doubted that Sakura would be much help. He...kind of doubted how much help _he'd_ be.

Now he'd definitely _have_ to be a help, though. With those kind of characters looking for the dragonballs, he couldn't sit back and let Goku do all the protecting of the world.

"You know, you could have gone back with that kid, if you wanted to." He spoke to his constant companion, Pu'ar, as they walked behind the other three in their group. For a given value of 'walked'.

"And leave you to go on a quest for dragonballs alone?" Pu'ar gave a high laugh. "No way! I need to look out for you when you get into trouble, now."

"I think I'm getting into trouble right _now_..." He sighed, and shook his head.

"You probably are."

The others ahead of him slowed to a stop, and moved behind nearby tree trunks. On instinct, he moved to one next to his girlfriend. A moment or two of processing later, he realized they were looking out at the enemy's camp. Beneath the slight ridge they stood at, soldiers wandered between large white-and-red tents and dodged splintered stumps from recently felled trees. Obviously they'd created themselves a clearing when they failed to find any others to set up their camp in. Obviously they had _something_ with enough brute strength to _break_ the trees down instead of cutting them.

Lovely.

"There's a problem..." Bulma stared down at something in her hand as she spoke, voice hushed but urgent. "The dragonball just started moving."

(*)

Once they fell back, she did briefly consider the possibility that the small child had simply convinced the cloud to double back and allow him to collect the dragonball from wherever he'd hidden it...but the dot in Bulma's hand moved too slowly to be the Nimbus. Someone was on foot.

"Let's kill the army and then take the dragonball back when he gets here." Perhaps it was just the lingering feeling from earlier, but the determination Goku put into that statement sounded a little too much like enthusiasm, and...was a little unsettling.

"The problem is, if they're going to a plane and taking it back to base, we'll lose them." Yamcha frowned down at the crawling dot. "The Nimbus won't be back until tomorrow, right?"

"I...guess not..."

"I think those guys at the camp were packing up to leave, too." Bulma glanced in the direction of the camp. "Maybe he reported back that he found the dragonball."

"What about splitting up?" It wasn't the best idea...but it would be cleaner to deal with the group who caused the destruction directly. Waiting until they made it back to base would end up with much more destruction, given the increase of troops they'd have behind them, and the difficulty in pinpointing which ones where involved in the slaughter.

She was probably being hyper-vigilant. Even Sasuke had returned to their side after all the darkness and horrible things that he did and became. Goku wasn't Sasuke. She was just letting herself get carried away over something more important than, and entirely unrelated to, her memories.

"...If there's a smaller group near the ball, we could probably handle it." Yamcha nodded, only slight hesitation in his voice. "If nothing else, we might be able to stall them or keep them from getting away while the other half deals with the camp."

"I'm going to the camp!" Goku crossed his arms. "The person who killed Upa's dad is there."

"If that's the case...I was going to say, I'll go with Bulma to the dragonball." Yamcha glanced over at the green haired woman, who gave a small nod. It made sense, at least. The one with the radar would have to be the one to search for the dragonball, and Bulma wouldn't be of much use attacking a group of armed men.

"I'll help Goku deal with the ones here." Not because she wanted to make sure Goku wouldn't lose himself. Because he wouldn't. That was a ridiculous concept. "We've handled one like this before, it'll be fine."

The three-as it seemed rather obvious Pu'ar would go with Yamcha-who were about to leave gave a small nod of acknowledgement.

Bulma straightened, and moved to stand nearer to Yamcha. "We'll meet you at the camp, I guess. In case we beat you two."

"No way!" Goku shook his head. "We'll beat all of them before you guys come back!"

There was a touch of nervousness in Yamcha's laugh as he turned to leave. "You know...I kind of hope so."

When the two vanished into the trees, Goku turned a suspicious gaze up toward her. "...Are you going to make me take turns again?"

"I think that would be hard to do." She sighed, and started back toward where they'd seen the enemy. Without walls and floors to separate the soldiers into easily handled groups...it would probably end up being a free for all, with Goku and herself stuck in the middle.

"I wanna fight the one who killed Upa's dad."

"Do you know which one that is?" Because...she didn't remember Upa describing anyone other than 'the man'...and she hadn't thought Goku was even close enough to hear that. Apparently he must have been listening for a little bit before he appeared.

"No...but I will!"

She studied him a moment, as they walked back to their vantage point above the camp. "How?"

He frowned ahead, expression darkening slightly. "He'll smell like him."

She studied the camp for a few moments, focusing on them rather than on Goku. Heightened senses wasn't anything unusual. Thinking about anything other than that...would be a distraction. People could be hurt, and the military forces could escape to report on them. For the moment, she had to focus just on those forces. What was the best method to deal with them before any _could_ escape? What was the relative skill level of those in the camp? How much would they-

Goku charged into the camp with an angry shout, drawing his staff.

So they'd be attacking as fast and hard as they could, then.

She sprinted forward and leapt off of the small cliff they stood on, summoning chakra to her fist as she fell. " _Chyah_!" The ground exploded outward around her with as much force as if a great object slammed into the camp from far in the sky, and screams erupted around her as men flew like debris through the air.

As she straightened, she saw Goku standing at a distance, having ducked out of the way of the shards of rock and dirt that flew through the air. A moment later, something flew quickly into her peripheral vision from the settling dust of the camp. She spun in place and lifted her arm to block the attack just as the blonde's fist connected.

The impact of the blow sent a slight shock wave through her body, and she immediately reached with her free hand to grasp his wrist, glaring up into his cold blue eyes. Blood ran down cuts on his body and stained parts of blonde hair copper. His uniform also was torn in several places, clearly damaged by her attack. Yet, he'd apparently shrugged it off and attacked her anyway.

His gaze widened slightly, and then narrowed decisively. " _You_!"

Admittedly, the recognition caught her somewhat off guard. There really wasn't much reason in this world for anyone to recognize her, given that her one notable act had been _under disguise_. "What?"

The man jumped backward, managing to land somewhat gracefully on uneven ground, and turned his attention toward Goku, who hopped down into her self-made crater easily. "...Both of you. You're the ones who destroyed General White's tower!"

...Someone from that tower _survived_?

She blinked, and shook her head in confusion, just as Goku gave an angry little roar.

"It's you! _You're the one who did it_!"

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enter Blue.
> 
> Expect to see the generals of the army at one point or another, but mercenaries they employed for various reasons may or may not be employed. Which may or may not mean they'll be met at another, later time. Or, possibly, not at all. There's no telling just yet!


	38. Chapter 38

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "It means they conveniently forgot to mention the damn Red Ribbon Army broke my radar!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: In case anyone is curious, because this was implied but can't ever be outright confirmed in the fic, yes, Krillin and Goku were a little bit stronger after training with Roshi and being inspired by Sakura than canon. Compare their performance against the rock in canon versus how they did in the story.
> 
> On an unrelated note, did you know how much Yamcha's power level and skillz jump up in Dragonball Z? Someone didn't need his potential unlocked to be awesome.
> 
> The hardest part about Pu'ar is deciding whether to say 'he' or 'she'

A part of him wondered whether he should have swapped roles with Goku, and been the one to go after the encampment. Or, at least Sakura. The other part of him hastened to remind him that any attempt to split up in a form that would leave him with that girl instead of his girlfriend would only end badly for him. Mostly, though...he suspected Goku and she would have more than sufficient power to deal with the army.

Besides that...there was no telling just what kind of a dangerous person they sent after the dragonball. If Bulma was going there, the only way he was going to feel at peace about it was if he were there himself to watch out for her. That was pretty much the best way he could give back for all the things she'd done for him since coming to Capsule Corporation, after all. Maybe it was an excuse to feel a little like he did before he ended up in Capsule Corporation, too. Everything was so comfortable, everything so easily provided to him...

He wasn't exactly _nostalgic_ for fighting to save his life, but most of him was still used to doing that.

He really hoped he was right to expect to win this time.

"I don't know why I didn't think the Red Ribbon Army would want the dragonballs." Bulma shook her head as he ran and she linked an arm around his neck to keep from slipping out of his grip.

"Well...there wasn't any reason to think they knew what those _were_." After all, it wasn't exactly common knowledge. And it _should_ have been even less _believed_ than it was known.

"What do you think they meant by having dealt with one like this before?" Pu'ar said, hovering next to him and keeping pace with almost embarrassing ease.

"Well..."

"It means they conveniently forgot to mention the _damn Red Ribbon Army broke my radar!_ "

(*)

Dust and dirt still floated through the air from her initial attack, but for a brief moment nothing else moved. The surviving army stood frozen around the crater she'd created, and the three inside simply stared at each other in a silent battle of wills.

Unsurprisingly, Goku broke the stillness first, charging at the blonde man with a furious expression. The practice he'd had trying to get the bell from her benefited him well. His movement was even quicker than before, and he crashed into the man in only a moment. To the credit of their attacker - who it seemed was the murderer of Upa's father - his response was equally fast, and he brought up his arm to deflect Goku's attack. When he attempted to counter Goku with a punch in response, though, Goku simply bounced away to the ground.

"Can you deal with the other guys?" Goku glanced up at her, expression determined. "I just wanna fight this guy."

She glanced between the tall blonde and Goku a moment. "...Just be careful."

"Don't worry! I'll be fine."

The blonde sneered down at them both, and shifted his stance slightly. "Fools. Just for insulting me, I'll ensure that I kill you _both_."

(*)

Fortunately (if it was actually fortunate...) the dragonball hadn't been all that far from the camp anyway, so they didn't have far to run. He set Bulma down a short distance from where the radar read the moving ball, and started warily in the direction of the footsteps in the forest ahead. Next to him was probably safer than trying to hide her in a random tree, but he'd need his hands free in case the military force ahead of them attempted to strike without warning. A middle ground would simply have to be walking slightly ahead of her and trusting Pu'ar to help hide her should it come to it.

"It's over..." Bulma's voice trailed off as a tall figure appeared in the trees ahead of them, marching with determination, but watching the ground instead of them. She nodded, and took a step back.

No one immediately appeared with the man walking...but that meant they were either well hidden, or this man was dangerous. The emblem of the Red Ribbon Army on his shirt ruled out the possibility of him being some sort of third party participant, and that meant the encampment that burned down a village to find a dragonball trusted one person to find and retrieve that dragonball.

If he was alone.

But, really, what were the chances he would be easy from the start?

He shook his head, and walked purposefully toward the man, setting his jaw. Maybe it would be best just to strike without warning, fall back into the trees while they'd yet to be noticed and then strike from the shadows and take the guy out before he was ready.

Maybe he'd been infected by Goku's reckless behavior.

He sighed, and shook his head again. Really. "... _Hey_."

The man turned a calm gaze up at him and stopped in his tracks, settling his hands in the pockets of an over sized and open coat. "I was beginning to wonder if you were going to do anything."

Ah...well. The guy was good, then.

"I guess that depends." He planted his hands on his hips, waiting for the man's attack. "Are you gonna hand over the dragonball you've got on you, or are you gonna make me do something?"

"Something?" The man watched him for a few moments, and then cracked his knuckles. "Showing me something would be a change of pace from what I've seen of anyone for a while."

There was no telling how dangerous this guy was - other than that he logically wouldn't be much worse from the people he'd seen in the tournament - but the blood that started pumping stronger through his limbs in anticipation of a fight was kind of...great.

Honestly, he'd never say anything against the life Bulma wanted for him, but he'd missed fighting a little bit. Maybe a lot.

He glanced back toward Bulma; Pu'ar led her safely back a short distance, shielding her protectively.

"There's no need to worry for her." The man said, voice as calm and reasonable as it had been since he started. "If she doesn't involve herself, I have no reason to hurt her."

He scoffed as he settled into a fighting stance. "That's big talk from a guy who's about to be on the ground."

He didn't blink, but for a moment, he almost thought he did. He almost got kicked in the face in that moment, so worrying about _just_ how fast the guy in front of him had to be to pull that off had to wait until another time. He threw himself backward just in time to avoid the impact, but the rush of air that accompanied the near miss made the force of the kick perfectly clear.

Not just _dangerous_. If he didn't take this guy completely seriously he might just end up _dead_.

The words of that woman, Ino, came to mind. He brushed them aside immediately. Coaching from a weird quitter didn't have any impact on his decision to use his Wolf Fang Fist immediately. Those were two different situations. _Entirely_.

Wind howled through the forest with much more ferocity than what the man's blow generated, and the man's calm expression finally broke into one of surprise as his barrage of blows began to knock the man backward again. No matter how fast the guy might be, no one (almost no one) could out-speed the Wolf Fang Fist. And he hit _much_ harder than it might look like he did.

When the man's guard slipped slightly, misinterpreting his action for a different strike, he landed a solid blow to the man's jaw, and red hair and muscle vanished back into the trees.

He dropped to the grass again in another ready stance and allowed himself a bit of a grin. "See what I mean? _On the ground_."

"Oh _wow_!" Bulma shouted from behind him. "That was really _awesome_!"

He gave a slight nod and smiled to himself. Maybe it was easy to forget, living in West City, just what kind of a life he lived before he moved in with her. "See? It's no big deal-"

"Where the hell was that in the _tournament_?"

He trailed off with a sigh. _Really_? Didn't she see the Wolf Fang Fist? It was _totally_ there! He misfired it, sure, but it was _there_!

"Well, if you were looking for a fight..." The voice of the man drifted out of the forest as his figure slowly reappeared, stripping off his ruined jacket and shirt. "It was your bad luck to have chosen to challenge Colonel Silver."

"Oh..." Bulma gasped. " _He looks incredible!_ He's just my type!"

Wait- _what_?

He turned toward her in confusion. " _Bulma_?"

Silver's fist connected with his head, and the impact sent a spiral of stars through his vision, knocking him stumbling back several steps. " _Gah-_ "

She gave a shriek of surprise, completely at odds with her previous exclamation of enthusiasm. " _Yamcha_!"

He grit his teeth in irritation and punched the man in the elbow when the Colonel attempted another strike. "What, _now_ you remember I'm here?"

"Oh come on!" She shouted, as he slammed the man in the stomach with his elbow, knocking the large man back. "I can't help the things I like."

He glanced over at her, frustration and irritation bubbling over much more easily with the heat and intensity of the battle already on him, "What do you mean _your type_ , anyway? He looks nothing like me!"

"Ignoring me..." The man growled, as he stumbled to his feet, "is the _best_ way to make me _angry._ And that...is a _terrible idea_!"

It was a bit disconcerting to hear Bulma and Pu'ar _both_ scream in tandem. " _Yamcha look out_!"

(*)

Cleaning up the rest of the men in the Red Ribbon Army camp wasn't particularly difficult. Most of them had been incapacitated by her initial attack, and the rest were either too distracted or too terrified to fight back properly. She didn't really make any attempt to defeat them using nonlethal methods. They made no attempt to disable Upa's village nonlethally, she had no obligation to give them such an allowance.

Blood and dirt covered her outfit, ground into her clothes deeply enough that she'd probably have to replace it. She flexed her fingers as she looked down at the last man she'd found. Perhaps she'd have rethought her decision if he'd asked her to, but this one was defiant. He'd emptied his gun pointlessly, he'd attacked her pointlessly. Now he simply glared at her against the tree he'd bumped into while backing up.

"Trash like you will be the lowest when the Red Ribbon Army has the world."

Really, that seemed like a rather weak threat, coming from a man who wouldn't even be alive for it if it happened. She didn't even bother coming up with a response to something like that. She clenched her hand into a fist and struck.

Only for something to seize her wrist like iron and flip her onto the ground without warning.

Once her vision caught up with the violent spin and reoriented herself, she saw the blonde man standing over her, fist raining down. She kicked his arm out of the way, and rolled away from him, climbing to her feet again.

"You don't expect I'd allow you to simply decimate my men without interruption, do you?" The man glared down at her, and brushed away blood from a freshly cut lip.

_Goku..._

She glanced over in the pit where the battle had raged without her supervision.

"Oh...no." The man straightened slightly, and worked at a kink in his shoulder, before starting toward her. A cruel smirk curled across his lips, marring what would otherwise be attractive and fine features for a soldier. "Don't worry about the dead. You'll be able to ask him all about the fate you sent him to in a moment."

_Dead_?

"...No."

Goku...Goku was young, small, and inexperienced. But he wasn't so easily killed. He absolutely wasn't dead. She wouldn't accept it.

It _couldn't_ be.

The man lunged forward with lightning speed. "Now _goodbye_!"


	39. Chapter 39

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He ducked as the man's good arm sliced through the air, and delivered a quick uppercut into exposed (and actually pretty well built) abs. Silver choked, and stumbled backward out of his range, gripping at the injured stomach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Power levels are so unreliable that Silver is 200 and Blue is 180.
> 
> So, I just thought of a future possible saga and came to a horrifying conclusion about how it will go down in this current timeline. See if you can figure out which one.

_Dead_.

"Now, _goodbye_!" The man lunged forward, fingers curled slightly on his striking hand.

Maybe she'd been in this world too long, playing in martial arts tournaments and tag-team fights against singular opponents barely worth her notice. Had she really gotten so lax in her training that she allowed a teammate to die right next to her?

Anger flared as blonde filled her vision, and she caught his hand out of the air. The impact of his blow rocked through her arm, fracturing one of the finest bones in her hand. Her teacher would be disappointed in her - his attack would have been easily dodged and her injury would have been avoided entirely. Her captain would be unimpressed as well, the way she allowed her emotions to interfere with her reason and cloud her judgment.

She clasped her fingers tight and sent a surge of chakra through her hand, crushing his into an unusable mess even she might not have been able to heal.

His scream echoed off of the mess of trees surrounding them, almost as if a hundred of him were suffering at once. Honestly, it was enough to quell her moment of rage.

_The priority of a medical ninja is the welfare of her team._

He stumbled backward, clasping his ruined hand with the other and she moved toward the crater she'd left her small companion in.

_Dealing with an enemy threat is secondary to ensuring the survival of an injured teammate._

The man's expression twisted to one of fury, and he took a step toward her as if to stop her again. She made no attempt to hold back her strength when she backhanded him away. His injured arm lifted to block her. Uselessly.

The trunk of a nearby tree exploded into splinters of wood as his body crashed through it, and she broke into a sprint.

Maybe...if it wasn't so bad, if he were lying, if the injuries weren't quite _fatal_...

Maybe she could get to him in time.

(*)

'Look out'. Now, that...that is a singularly _unhelpful_ phrase. There were many things a person should have to look out for, and honestly, that warning just didn't prepare someone sufficiently for every possibility it opened up.

Mostly, it just distracted him right before the Colonel _shot him_.

The good thing about that was...he actually wasn't aware until that moment that he could _handle_ being shot. By a shotgun, in fact. Clearly the man must have opened up a weapon's capsule when he wasn't looking and shot him while he was distracted by his good friend and girlfriend.

The impact wasn't fun: it successfully knocked him off of his feet and onto the ground. That was maybe due to his own level of distraction. At least he could confirm what he'd never really worked up the gumption to test, though: the manipulation of ki that he'd managed to master working on his Wolf Fang Fist kept the bullets from actually penetrating his skin.

They'd probably bruise like hell, though.

He shook his head slightly, trying to knock out the ringing that had started up in them, and stumbled back to his feet. "Okay...now that's just _cheating_. Bringing a gun to a martial arts fight?"

The man looked...pretty unsurprised that he was unharmed, for being the one that _shot him_. "There are no rules in a war."

That...sounded a little like a line he might have used before meeting Goku. A lamer version of one, anyway. It felt a little bit weird to be on the receiving end of it, now. That wasn't really something he ever anticipated for himself when he was scraping together a life of violence and theft for himself and Pu'ar. But...actually...he kind of liked it.

It felt kind of good not to be the one resorting to dirty (and unsuccessful) tactics.

For as long as he could keep the Colonel from finding a way to take hostages of his two companions, anyway. Then it would be somewhat _less_ of a good feeling. _Considerably_ less, in fact.

He shook his head slightly, and started toward the man. It was a subtle attempt to maneuver the fight further away from Bulma and Pu'ar to get them out of sight. "Well, if you were gonna cheat, you should have brought something that packed a bigger punch."

The man's lips twitched up into a smirk. "Now that you've made me angry, I wouldn't want the battle to end so easily."

"If that's the case..." He jumped toward the other man and swung out his leg, hoping to kick the heavily muscled soldier away from the others by force. "I'll have to make you regret your decision!"

And, more importantly, keep him from using whatever bigger gun he had still locked up.

Silver caught his leg, but when he dropped back to the ground, he caught a flash of pain in the other man's eyes. Furthermore, the Colonel's arm dropped back to his side like deadweight. So. The blow hadn't been _entirely_ deflected without injury at least. He didn't have to feel completely inadequate in front of his girlfriend.

He ducked as the man's good arm sliced through the air, and delivered a quick uppercut into exposed (and actually pretty well built) abs. Silver choked, and stumbled backward out of his range, gripping at the injured stomach.

"Sorry, did I find a weak spot?" He couldn't help a bit of a smirk. "If it is, I'll make sure to hit harder next time."

The colonel glared up at him, lips curling into a snarl, and lunged forward with both arms outstretched. " _Boy!_ "

Rage clouded the man's judgment, leaving him blatantly open all over the place, and stripping him of whatever strategy he'd had before. Honestly, when the man lumbered at him with all of the skill and tact of an angry bear, it was an easy matter to just step in and strike.

Up until that became a really... _bad_ idea, and the man's bulging arms clamped down around his back. Like a bear. An angry bear.

"Guh-!" He grunted in pain as the man clasped his arms tight...and something creaked rather ominously from inside his body.

Yeah. Okay.

So maybe the colonel was thinking things through a _little_ better than he gave the guy credit for.

Maybe.

" _Yamcha_!"

Okay, so it was petty, but it felt pretty good to at least hear Bulma show a little bit of concern. Considering the way she kept blaming him over those capsules, and how she _just now_ ogled some other guy in front of him. Not good enough to ignore how much his position currently _hurt_ , but...

He slammed his forehead into the bridge of the other man's nose. Colonel Silver's arms immediately dropped away, and the larger man stumbled backward, hands clasped to his face.

Seriously, what kind of a martial artist did this Colonel think he was? A soldier? Some kind of a wandering hero?

He was a _bandit_.

If the soldier didn't want to fight like a soldier, then bandits didn't fight fair either.

The air whistled around him, howling through the branches of the trees around him. and from the white (now somewhat filthy) sleeve around his wrist he drew out a capsule from a band on his wrist and released it into his hand.

Metal glinted in the dim light of the forest, and dark red sprayed across silk. He didn't really mind. It was for good reason he didn't ever bother to steal silk when he was a bandit. It never really lasted in such a rough lifestyle.

Colonel Silver stumbled back another step, and hands clasped over his stomach. "Ugh..."

"I guess you're right." He'd grabbed the wrong capsule, ended up with a dagger and not a sword like he'd used to carry, but he had more than enough speed and strength to make the shorter blade work anyway. "Battles for life and death _don't_ have any rules. Thanks for the reminder."

The man collapsed to his knees, pressing his hands against the cut along his abdomen. He wasn't that much of a threat anymore, though, as if he used his hands to do anything else, those precious things inside of himself would immediately fall across the grass. One way or another, the Colonel would probably bleed out on his own.

"Now..." He turned back toward where Bulma and Pu'ar stood, leaning out from behind a tree. "Can the radar tell where he's got the dragonball on him?"

Bulma's eyes widened suddenly and she gave a shout. " _Yamcha look-_!"

Something heavy crashed into his back, and sent him flying off of his feet. Something crunched as he slammed into one of the thick tree trunks nearby, and a cry of pain ripped from his throat before he crashed to the damp grass below.

The Colonel stumbled toward Bulma and Pu'ar, one hand sloppily holding his gut, trailing blood across grass, and the other fumbled with a capsule. "You have a radar...give it to me."

His girlfriend gave a scream, and bolted toward where he...couldn't quite feel the whole of his body just yet. She only made it a few steps before the man intercepted her, using speed he'd barely seen during their own battle. The hand that had held the capsule instead gripped her throat and lifted her into the air.

" _Bulma_..." He groaned in desperation, and struggled to summon strength to his stunned limbs. The impact of that blow...had it been to some kind of pressure point, or was the man _that strong_? He yelped in pain when he managed to shift, and jarred his broken arm.

 _Damn it_...

"Give me... _this radar_." The man growled. "It's more precise than the Red Ribbon Army's radar, isn't it?"

His fingers clenched around her throat and she made a pained, choking noise, hands coming up to claw uselessly at his wrist.

Pu'ar transformed into a large, muscular man, and charged at the Colonel, hands outstretched. "Get your hands off of her!"

The Colonel batted Pu'ar away with his other hand, sending the small creature back into a tree with a pitiful whimper and a burst of smoke. The man swayed on his feet slightly, as something slipped free from the gash in his stomach and hung down about his thighs, before he pressed his hand against the wound again.

_At this rate..._

He dragged himself away from the tree with his fingers, crawling across the grass, forcing feeling back into his limbs. He had to get back into the battle. No matter how mortal the wound, the man could kill Bulma _and_ Pu'ar before he dropped dead himself.

The man growled in impatience, shaking Bulma slightly with the arm holding her up. "Speak, or I will kill you and search you myself."

"Y-...you..." She grit her teeth and glared down at him, defiant.

_Move..._

His entire body burned, felt like he'd been electrocuted by something, and protested every movement he demanded. But he _had to. He had to get there in time_.

"If that is your choice..."

The Colonel's words cut off sharply as she suddenly drew back her foot and delivered a vicious kick between his legs. And then another, just a moment later.

Yamcha couldn't help a slight wince, as the man stumbled and jerked slightly in pain. Not that...he wasn't rooting for her success, but he knew how hard she could _hit_ when she got angry. Muscular determined soldier or not. His grip seemed to loosen slightly, and she twisted, kicking at his gut, instead, right into his injury.

The man flung her away from him into the tree she'd been hiding behind, and his legs gave out. Even as he crashed to the ground, though, he still fought. He'd landed right next to where that capsule he'd been holding before fell, and with some unsteadiness, he reached out to open it.

A huge _rocket launcher_ appeared.

A rocket launcher.

" _Damn it_ -!" He gave a scream of frustration and a burst of energy welled up in his limbs. He lurched up to his feet, and lunged onto the top of where the man was sprawled out on the ground. " _Get!"_ He punched into the man's jaw, knocking his line of sight into the dirt _"Away!"_ He ripped the man's hand away from the launcher, and slammed it to the ground. _"From Bulma!_ "

Images flashed through his mind of Bulma held by her throat. Of Pu'ar unconscious against a tree, of himself just _lying on the ground_ , unable to protect either of them. Forced to watch the people he cared the most about killed for _nothing._ Of being so _careless_ he'd turned his back to an opponent before the man was actually _dealt with._

His fist slammed down into the man's throat again and again, after no more noises came from the Colonel, after it became the only movement in the forest around them at all.

Someone gripped his wrist. Fine, painted fingernails filled his vision, broke through the guilt and anger that burned through his limbs, dispelled the images of what almost was.

" _Yamcha!_ " Bulma's voice was firm. It held just the slightest scratch to it from the abuse her throat suffered. "If you don't stop it right now, I'm gonna be _scared!_ "

Pu'ar floated next to her, expression concerned but...unharmed. They were both bruised, but unharmed.

That's right. He shook his head slightly and struggled unsteadily to his feet, wincing at the jolt of pain from his arm that reminded him of the impact it suffered a few moments before. It had been a close call, but...nothing was actually _wrong_. He'd just have to be more careful next time. That's all.

For now, at least, everyone...everyone other than his _arm_ , was _fine._


	40. Chapter 40

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Who said we were finished?" A voice snarled from behind her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look, Chapter 40!

It was only a short distance to the crater, but it felt like the entire length of the camp. It felt like too long.

She shouldn't have allowed Goku to fight without supervision. These people had decimated an entire village. Goku wouldn't have been prepared to deal with that all on his own no matter how much he wanted revenge. She should have been thinking like a captain, and not like a genin herself.

_Just hold on a bit longer, Goku..._

" _Who said we were finished_?" A voice snarled from behind her. An unbelievable voice, because he should have been unconscious longer, if he even survived. Had he somehow mastered a substitution jutsu as the other ninja in the world had?

It didn't matter. He could be dealt with later. Protecting Goku came first.

And so, of course, nothing less than a tree slammed into her.

And out of her.

It was, most likely, the one that she'd caused him to crash through. How he'd managed to throw it at her, particularly with such force, she didn't know. The initial impact knocked her off of her feet, but the large wooden object moved more quickly that her body did. Something unpleasant (she knew exactly what something) snapped in her back, and large chunks of wood speared through her body, jutting out in front of her in a spray of red and black. After a moment, her body crashed into the ground, and the sharp ends of the tree that jutted out in front of her dug into the dirt beneath her.

It _hurt_.

She...also couldn't feel her legs. Her arms...struggled to force her up again under the weight of half of a tree. In a better position, it would have been much easier to deal with. She could do it like this...but it wasn't the best position to do it in, all the same.

The man staggered toward her, an almost crazed glint in his eye. "No matter how strong... _none_ of you are a match for the Red Ribbon Army!"

She didn't have _time for this_.

Damn it, she didn't have time to be pinned under a tree, didn't have chakra to waste on healing herself, and didn't have time to waste on _fighting this person_ while Goku might be fading away.

She slammed her fist into the ground, and a fissure in the earth sped its way to where the man stood, knocking him off of his feet.

There wasn't any choice. Goku was only one person, after all. No matter how hurt he was, she could heal him up with what she had stored up. She'd have to spare some of that chakra to heal herself so she could to get to him.

Her seal flared to life, flooding her body with renewed energy. A sharp elbow to the tree behind her shattered the wood pinning her down in one blow, and she pushed herself up to her feet. The injuries from the projectile healed as quickly as the hiss of the jutsu dispersed into the air around her.

A moment later, she shut down the jutsu again and sealed her chakra safely away, reducing the spiral marks on her face to a simple diamond on her forehead once more. Once that was done, she sprinted toward the crater with fresh determination. The general had landed the last hit she'd allow him to have. If he tried anything like that again...it wouldn't succeed.

In the end, all of her haste, all of her desperation to get to Goku before it was too late...amounted to nothing.

A moment before she crested the top of the impact she'd created herself, Goku himself appeared. He looked worse for wear, stumbling and bleeding out of his mouth and ear. He was, however. most certainly not dead. The injury he suffered, though...was still very grave. If untreated, the concussion he must have suffered _could_ kill him.

Just not quite immediately. Hopefully.

"me... _ha_!" The boy shouted and wobbled on his feet, shooting a brilliant beam of light behind her.

She turned in time to see the man, having stood up once more, engulfed in the blast, and sent flying into the surrounding forest again.

As the light faded from the clearing, she swept down and caught the small boy before he could crash to the ground. Obviously the General had successfully knocked Goku unconscious with his attack before. He'd probably thought Goku _was_ dead. Or would be soon enough for it to count anyway.

She intended to make him wrong on both accounts. And _then_ she intended to teach him a lesson. For the moment, though, the only thing important was the dead weight in her arms and the way he made no attempt to do... _anything_.

"Goku...you _idiot_." She grit her teeth and summoned medical chakra. As it filtered through his system, she grimaced to herself. The damage was _terrible_. She'd suspected as much when she noticed the blood from his ear...but part of his skull had cracked inward, and the brain itself had been damaged.

She had the skill to fix it. Thank...whatever deity the world happened to have, she had _that_ amount of skill.

How he'd managed to crawl out of the crater, much less wield ki while suffering such an injury, though...his determination was almost on the level of Naruto's.

The way he slumped in her arms, not quite conscious, hanging on to life as she worked to heal him...

She shook her head quickly, and banished the image of Naruto, floating on sand, resisting everything she tried to do to heal him. Distractions...worrying about how similar this world was to the one she knew when it _wasn't_...now wasn't the time for that!

Bones knit slowly back together, damaged chakra circuits slowly straightened again, and the blood that spilled where it shouldn't was carefully funneled back where it belonged. It took extreme precision, it took _calm_ , and it took a considerable amount of healing chakra. But it _worked_.

Goku made a faint sound of protest, as his consciousness slowly faded back in. "Auw..."

"You... _idiot_." She scrubbed at her eyes with the back of her hand. Not because there were tears, they just...burned. From the dirt and the splinters of wood in the air. "Don't ever just try to fight someone stronger than you alone when I can help you! What if I weren't so close by? You could have _died_ and not been able to help Upa at all!"

"Uh..." he frowned slightly and rubbed at his head. "Sorry..."

For someone who _almost died_ , he didn't sound sincere at all. Not even a little. He sounded...more confused and put upon than sincere.

She dropped her fist onto the top of his head. Just hard enough to make him wince and give an indignant cry. " _Idiot_."

He shuffled away from her and gave her an accusing look, as if _she_ were the one in the wrong, before turning to look in the direction the general vanished in. "He's...weird."

"Weird?" She glanced between he and the darkness of the trees. Was it possible the general might still be alive? Had the man actually been strong enough to _hurl a tree_ at her? More importantly: was there any danger the man might decide to meet up with the other force that had the dragonball, and endanger Yamcha, Bulma, and Pu'ar?

"I dunno what happened..." Goku frowned, and then started in the direction the general went. She stood after a moment, and followed after. "We were fighting, and he wasn't very strong...but then...suddenly I couldn't _move_! And then he hit me with a big rock and when I woke up I heard him fighting _you_."

Couldn't move...?

So...did the general have some sort of paralysis jutsu? Or a genjutsu that Goku simply didn't recognize?

Could ki _do_ that?

He couldn't...possibly have the ability to manipulate _chakra_ , could he?

She frowned, and marched onward. There were answers she needed. He had them. They needed to find _him_ before he could escape. And once she got the answers she wanted, they were _absolutely_ going to kill him.

(*)

Okay, so. He never really doubted it, but his arm was _definitely_ broken. In at least one...maybe one and a half places. Could an arm be broken in one and a half places? Because it felt like it.

As much as it would be weird and a little exploitative to take up Pu'ar's offer to be a sling for him, the way each step was jarring his arm...he was kind of starting to consider it. Which meant he probably should just make another sling for himself. Silk made an okay sling for arms, right? And his shirt was _ruined_ anyway.

"Hey...wait."

Bulma and Pu'ar both stopped in unison and looked up at him with worried eyes. He wasn't sure if he found that comforting or unsettling. Maybe he'd know if he were sure the concern was just because he had a broken arm, and not because of killing someone right in front of them.

Well, it wasn't like Pu'ar hadn't seen him do it before, but...that hadn't ever been the same thing.

But he'd done it in self defense this time, too. He'd done it in _sort_ of self defense, and he'd done it for them and for some village full of murdered people!

...And...it was entirely possible he was the only one who felt like that was some kind of a lie. Even if it wasn't.

"Um..." He lifted his good, uninjured arm up to start unbuttoning his shirt. "I was thinking...can't we just use this shirt as a sling for my arm? I mean, it's ruined anyway, so..."

Bulma blinked and shook herself slightly. "Ah! That's...yes, we could, I guess. But, do we have any scissors?"

Well, he could just _rip_ it...

"I can be scissors!" Pu'ar chipped up, floating closer to Bulma. "Just be careful, okay? I can get ticklish."

(*)

They didn't find a body.

General Blue wasn't _dead_.

Even if she wanted answers, knowing that...was a little bit of a disappointment. It would have been simpler if the man _had_ died from the Kamehameha. Now they didn't have much choice but to scour the forest around them looking for him.

Objectively, that wasn't much of a problem.

But the best manner of searching through the forest quickly enough to find someone trying to escape through it, would be to split up and search different directions until they found him, using their own different abilities to travel through the forest at their own maximum speed.

She had no interest in leaving Goku alone to fight that general agian. Not if genjutsu might be involved.

She frowned, and looked down at him. "Can you...smell the general anywhere?"

He sniffed the air and scanned the forest around them. "Yeah...but it's weird. I can't figure out where it's coming from."

"You mean...like he's right here?" She glanced up at the trees above them, and then curled her fingers into a fist as her gaze fell to their feet. If the man had access to chakra somehow, then it meant he might also be trained in other shinobi methods. And _that_ meant...a foe might just be underneath them.

Goku, however, shook his head. "No...it's...coming from more than one place."

Clones?

Or...had he been wandering in multiple directions and gotten lost? Could it be that?

She frowned, and glanced back toward the encampment. "...Maybe we should find the others."

"Huh?"

"If we've lost him..." She glanced back down at her small companion. Blood still caked on his ear and his chin, but he looked otherwise as if he'd never been harmed at all. He practically looked _healthier_ than when they walked into the camp, in fact. "He's either going to go back to his base, or he's going to try to meet up with the other force and find the dragonball."

"Ah! The dragonball!" Goku brightened in surprise, as if she'd brought up something he'd completely forgotten about. Which he might have, in his haste for revenge.

"Right." She frowned, and turned her gaze in the direction the three had gone. "If they have the dragonball...then it means that he's going to attack _them_ next."

Goku's expression hardened at that, and he turned in the direction she looked. "...Right. Then...we're gonna _stop_ him!"


	41. Chapter 41

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sakura blinked, and looked down at herself. She hadn't actually thought about it, but...when the tree ripped through her, it also tore through her shirt, leaving a ragged and gaping hole over her abdomen. It was...probably good it hadn't been higher. Not just because it would have been more difficult to heal with a collapsed lung or damaged heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sakura gotta get her head back in the game, man.

As it happened, it wasn't all that difficult to find Yamcha and the others. The trio was already on their way to the camp when they went out looking. Bulma had faint bruising on her neck, and Yamcha limped along with his arm in a makeshift sling (that clearly used to be his shirt). Apparently they, too, encountered some resistance.

"Is everyone alright?" She frowned between the two injured humans.

"Yeah, it's not so bad..." Yamcha winced slightly as he shifted his shoulder. "I think it's just a broken arm."

Bulma waved her hand. "I'm alright. What about _you_?" She nodded and pointed at...

Sakura blinked, and looked down at herself. She hadn't actually thought about it, but...when the tree ripped through her, it also tore through her shirt, leaving a ragged and gaping hole over her abdomen. It was...probably good it hadn't been higher. Not just because it would have been more difficult to heal with a collapsed lung or damaged heart.

"Ah..."

She wasn't quite certain what to say. Admitting her ability to heal herself wasn't _necessarily_ a bad thing. She trusted these people. It was just...years of training made it difficult to reveal anything she didn't _have_ to.

"We fought the guy who destroyed the village." Goku spoke before she needed to explain herself, expression darkening into a scowl. "He got away."

Yamcha immediately looked around the forest nearby, as if he expected the man to appear just by being referenced. "How badly did you guys get him?"

She shook her head slightly. "Goku used that Kamehameha. After the General had been knocked through a tree or two. He must be pretty injured...but he's throwing off his trail." Somehow. If only she'd been able to pick up a few sensory jutsu...

"So you came here because we have the dragonball." Bulma frowned, and gave a small nod. "I guess he _would_ go looking for that before he tried to escape."

"If that's the case...he's probably got some way to track his guy. Which means...he'll be back that way first." Yamcha turned back in the direction they'd appeared from. After a pause, he spoke again. "So...he took one of _Goku's_ kamehamehas? And went _through_ a tree. And he's still on his feet?"

"Yeah." She frowned and walked up next to where Yamcha stood. "How about the guy you fought? Is he still out there?"

The faint, hopeless smile that lingered on his expression vanished. "No."

Chances were, now that they were together, now that her focus was on the General and not on saving Goku's life, Yamcha's injury wouldn't play into the battle very much at all. She probably didn't need to heal him at all. He could go back home and recuperate after they retrieved this dragonball.

She didn't really _need_ to heal him.

She bit her cheek in frustration and turned toward him. "Let me see it."

"Huh?" He blinked, and looked over at her in confusion. "See what?"

"Your arm." She nodded toward the injured arm in the sling.

"Ah...no, it's fine. Really!" He shook his head. "I mean...I can fight with one hand. It'll only slow the Wolf Fang Fist a little bit."

She reached out to grab his shoulder before he could walk ahead and ignore her. "Don't be stupid. Fighting like that is going to make it worse."

Bulma frowned from the other side of him, suspicious and...more than a little irritated. "Hey, what do you think you're doing, huh? That's my boyfriend you're manhandling!"

"If you'd sit _still_!" She snapped, glaring up at the taller man, who'd begun to shy and tug away from her grip. "I'm going to _fix_ your arm. Unless you _like_ having a broken arm?"

"What...?" Yamcha frowned, looking at her and then down at Goku. "What's she talking about?"

Goku's brows knit together at he looked up at her as well. "...Is it your secret technique?"

"It's...something like that." She lifted her hand over Yamcha's arm and gave him a warning look. "If we're going to fight, we need all the arms we have."

His expression was uncertain, and static irritation flowed off of Bulma's silence. Even Pu'ar's fur looked a bit on end. At least Goku's expression looked confident and expectant. Possibly that was because he'd already been healed by her before, but...she liked to think he also had faith in her.

She dispelled those thoughts and closed her eyes for a moment, summoning chakra. The injury wasn't too bad, though it had been aggravated somewhat with what was probably the battle after the break. A soft hiss came from Yamcha's clenched teeth as his bones shifted back into place. A moment later, she finished and took a step away from him.

"Better?"

He frowned and lifted his arm, flexing his fingers a few times and then lightly swinging his arm. "...That was the same thing you did to Upa, right? It wasn't just some small thing that just looked like you'd done something."

Bulma moved in quickly, expression fascinated. "It's completely _healed_? How is that possible?"

Yamcha squinted over at her, expression faintly suspicious. As...usual. "Just what is it that you use? More advanced than ki?"

"There's no time." She shook her head and turned toward where the general must have been already. "If he's not coming after us, I'm not going to let him escape while we talk!"

She broke into a sprint without any further warning. More advanced wasn't even the right word for it. Chakra was...refined. It was something shaped out of ki and funneled through the body. It wasn't easily explained. It was something she still couldn't decide if she _should_ explain. Nothing made sense when she tried to think about how and why she was here, what this world was.

It was better to focus on getting _out_.

It was better to focus on destroying the person who'd slaughtered an entire village for a bauble.

(*)

It was still a little hard to believe, but there wasn't even any lingering fatigue in his arm. The rest of him felt a little bit refreshed, too. He'd never seen or even really heard about any kind of technique that would up and _heal_ someone. Ki was almost always destructive. It could protect, but...to reverse damage after it had been done?

The more he got to know about the strange pink haired woman, the less he understood.

If she hadn't _run off_ as soon as he'd started asking reasonable questions, he would have...probably tried to get Pu'ar and Bulma back to some kind of safety. They didn't have much in the way of vehicles to escape in, since the Nimbus had left...but with the watch at least they would have been hard to find by anyone trying to hurt them. And the dragonball might actually disappear off of radars completely if it were made small, too.

Instead, he ended up carrying Bulma right back into danger again.

He grit his teeth in frustration.

Why was she _here_? He could have read the dragon radar just fine on his own. He could fend for himself just fine. The dangers that came with a dragonball quest, they didn't bother him. Why would _she_ throw herself into that danger again?

What the hell was he going to do if they met someone he _couldn't_ protect her from, even if he stayed on guard all the time?

(*)

For a little bit, she worried that finding the General was a hopeless quest. He might be anywhere in the forest by now. If they were wrong about his priorities, he might have made it to some sort of escape already, and they wouldn't be able to find him again until they made it to the military base.

And that soldier he protected escaped.

She hadn't thought about it until they were long in the forest. He'd distracted her so completely she hadn't ever thought to double back and deal with the last one in his camp. By now, if nothing else, that man would have gotten away. Right now, they were waging a war against an entire military force and they weren't even managing to do it _stealthily_.

Just what would they find at the next place the Red Ribbon went first, if the military knew she and Goku were coming for them now?

A short distance away, the general stood above the body of who must have been the one sent to retrieve the dragonball. His shirt had torn off at some point, and his pants were ragged and hanging on to his body primarily due to the leather belt he wore. Something had caused a deep gash across his face, and blood ran down his cheek and neck like slow drying paint. His ruined hand hung limply at his hand, a bruised and discolored mess.

Something dangerous glinted in his blue eyes as he turned toward them, good hand clinging to a smaller version of the weapon General White had held. "So...this is _all_ of you. What a pitiful force to challenge the Red Ribbon army with!"

"I don't care about that!" Goku shouted, stepping in front of the rest of them. "I just wanna challenge _you_!"

"So...you truly did make a liar of me." He clicked his tongue in something that was...either disdain or disgust, lips curling into a snarl for a moment. "How _distasteful_."

The man started toward them with slow, steady steps. As if he weren't really harmed by their earlier battle at all. "The Colonel would not have returned without the dragonball. So...which of you is carrying it?"

"You don't need to worry about that." Yamcha shifted slightly, readying to fight the blonde general. "You're never gonna see it anyway."

"Don't you think so?" His lips curled into a smile. "But I already know which one of you has it."

She started to run before he truly began to lift his arm. Yamcha gasped and turned toward Bulma once the General's arm lifted, moving to pull her behind him. Goku burst into action as soon as he saw Sakura move.

Her hand collided with the back of his just as the explosion of noise rocked the small wooded area they stood in. The red pole eternally strapped to Goku's back slammed into his gut. Bulma screamed. The General stumbled backward, expression twisted in pain.

She pressed the advantage immediately, refusing to look back and see what he'd hit. Dealing with him was important. Before he could escape, before he could do any more damage, she was going to _end_ it. If Goku wanted to help do that, he'd have to be able to keep up.

She stepped over a metal object on the ground, lifting herself into the air, and dropped down on him, fist lifted.

Blue eyes met hers, and...her breathing stopped. Her hand stopped. She couldn't move _at all_.

A moment later, his fist collided with her stomach, and she found herself flipped onto the ground, feeling and movement returning to her limbs all at once with the painful crash.

It was... _genjutsu_? Was it? It had lasted so briefly she didn't get the chance to break it.

Goku slammed into him a moment later, and then-almost surprisingly-so did Yamcha. Yamcha kicked through the air over Goku's head, colliding with the general's jaw, and Goku punched into the general's stomach hard enough to lift his feet off of the air.

She shook herself, gathering her wits about her again, and pushed off of the ground again. Yamcha's kick sent the man flying toward her. She drew back her fist as he flew in her direction, and struck just as he turned his face up to look at her.

She _decimated_ his nose. She hoped the impact might also break his neck.

Judging by the way he writhed on the ground when he finally hit it, though...she didn't put in quite enough. Obviously, she was getting too used to holding back.

She flexed her fingers as she walked up to where he curled on the ground. Wherever Goku and Yamcha were, they made no attempt to step in the way or finish the man off themselves. That was just fine with her. He'd done enough damage while she let other people deal with him. She'd had about enough of that.

"You... _You_..." The man growled and slurred his words, shaking in what was undoubtedly a mixture of rage and pain as he struggled to push himself back up.

"The rest of you. Step back." She straightened the damaged glove on her wrist as she looked down at him.

He spat blood at her and hissed. "H- _How dare you!_ Do you think you can fight me alone?!"

She didn't bother to respond to him.

Her seal flared to life as he pushed himself up to his hands and knees and swayed unsteadily.

She ensured that she did not hold back this time.


	42. Chapter 42

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The trouble with being so efficient, if it could be said to be a trouble, was that the Nimbus still wouldn't be back for another day. Or more. And neither the village nor the encampment was in any state for them to shelter in or find vehicles home inside. The best they'd managed was to salvage a couple of undamaged tents from the encampment and set them up at the base of the...
> 
> Whatever the hell it was in the ruined village that disappeared up into the sky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Has it been twelve chapters since we've had a wind-down chapter? Will this one count as one?
> 
> Red Ribbon Army/Quest for the Dragonballs saga is intense, even with company.

Her strength...it wasn't human. He'd heard a few stories, but... _that_ wasn't normal at all. After the general had been hit, it was entirely possible there was something left of him. There was no telling for sure, however, because the impact of her hit looked a bit like a bomb had gone off, and drilled _straight into the ground_. _Trees_ collapsed into it and covered up the body by the time the shock waves calmed.

And she simply stood on the jutting piece of rock and earth that her punch had lifted into the air. She didn't looked disturbed at all when she walked back to join them.

Whoever she was, whatever it was she did before befriending Goku...it worried him. And yet, before killing someone without a moment of hesitation or regret, she somehow used an ability that completely healed a broken arm.

He shook his head slightly, and crossed his (now unharmed) arms. While the military force had been ousted, they still only had three of the four dragonballs necessary to bring back the village. Or...send her home. There was only one wish, after all. She didn't seem to take any issue with Goku's offer to return the village back to life when he made it...but when it came down to it, which one would she expect to wait?

The trouble with being so efficient, if it could be said to be a trouble, was that the Nimbus still wouldn't be back for another day. Or more. And neither the village nor the encampment was in any state for them to shelter in or find vehicles home inside. The best they'd managed was to salvage a couple of undamaged tents from the encampment and set them up at the base of the...

Whatever the hell it was in the ruined village that disappeared up into the sky.

It didn't take long sitting there before both the pink and blue haired women made their way up to the base of the structure. Bulma slowly circled it, leaning in to look at it closer and then looked up into the sky, shielding her eyes from the glare of the sun. Sakura wandered even closer and ran her fingertips along the intricate designs.

"This is so elaborate..." Sakura spoke in a voice that sounded almost as if she expected one of them to answer why.

"It looks like it just keeps going on up the same." Bulma craned her neck back and squinted. "It's even painted."

"They must have painted it and then made it stand up?" He figured he'd say _something_ , since Goku didn't look like he had anything to say on the matter, and...well. Obviously that's what they did. No one would be crazy enough to try to carve and paint the thing so elaborately when they could fall off and die.

Sakura looked down at the base of the pole and pursed her lips. "Maybe..."

Bulma glanced over at her. "Even if they did, can you imagine how far this would have reached?"

"Are you sure there's no legends about this at all?"

Bulma shrugged slightly. "No. I haven't heard a single thing about it. Even when I was looking into the legends about the dragonballs, this never came up."

"...How far up does it go?" Sakura pressed her hand to the pole again and stared up into the sky, as if she could see something more than _anyone else_ could have standing and looking up at it.

"I'm not going to check, if that's what you're implying." Pu'ar huffed. "It gets too cold to fly up there!"

Bulma glanced over at Pu'ar. and then toward Goku. "Well, we can go up and see once Goku's Nimbus cloud gets back. Right?"

"Uh..." He blinked. "I guess so..."

"Hey. Goku." Sakura looked at the youngest of their group as well. An...uncommon smile curled across her lips. It wasn't quite a smirk, but it held more mischief than he was used to seeing from the woman. "Let's climb up and see for ourselves."

Although the offer was directed at Goku, not himself, he still couldn't help breaking into a coughing fit in surprise. " _What?"_

(*)

Something about the pole...the monument...there had to be _something_ about it, to go through so much trouble to build it and design it. It wasn't made of earth or stone as Earth jutsu would be, and it was _painted_. If Upa were still nearby, she could simply ask him. As it was...if she wanted to ask the child about it, she would have to wait until the cloud made it all the way to West City and back, and then detour away from their quest for dragonballs to make the trip herself.

Or, she could climb up and see if there was an answer up there.

Maybe there wouldn't be. It might have no discernible purpose. But then, it might also give a vantage point that would allow her to figure out where that last soldier might have escaped to.

And part of her just wanted to know how high up it went.

If they had to wait around _anyway_ , climbing a giant pole into the sky had to be more interesting than staying in an empty village and thinking about the people they weren't present in time to save. Not only that, the climb might be good for Goku. Lady Tsunade had her climb a few walls during her training that were nearly as sheer, and without her chakra to help her stay.

"Yeah!" Goku grinned and ran up to the structure. "I wanna see what's up top, too!"

Yamcha's expression was more than a little bewildered. "You're both _crazy_. It's just a big _rod_ sticking up in the sky, and you wanna _climb_ it?"

"Yeah!" It didn't really surprise her that Yamcha's statement didn't faze Goku at all. It didn't seem to surprise Yamcha, either.

Bulma frowned. "You could both _die_ if you fell from that."

"I used to climb things like this in my exams." That was an exaggeration, but she did walk up trees quite often once she became a genin. Honestly, if the worst happened, she'd just _run_ up the damn thing. But climbing would take more time and effort, and presumably help pass the time better.

It also would be useful for Goku, as she hadn't had much opportunity to train with him since the tower.

Yamcha scoffed. "Are you trying to tell me wherever you trained had things like _that_ people were supposed to scale?"

Obviously not. She was still going to do it, though.

"If you don't think you can do it, you can stay here." She wasn't actually sure if he _could_. Besides, if he did, it would leave Bulma alone in uncertain territory. Just herself and Goku would be fine.

She carefully selected a good handhold and pulled herself up off of the ground with it. On the other side, Goku jumped, and grabbed onto something a little lower.

"Hey! Let's race and see who gets to the top first!"

"...No, be careful." From where he was, it would be hard to get to him in time if he slipped and fell, and there was no telling what the state if the engravings would be up nearer to the top. If they existed at all. "Until we know what's up there, we'll take it slow."

He huffed in disappointment. "...I guess...but next time we'll do it!"

Yamcha sighed.

(*)

They'd been out of sight for a little bit now, above the trees, and he felt like...an idiot. Increasingly like an idiot. Bulma glared up through the trees in the direction they went, and kept mumbling to herself in irritation. He stood too far away to make out the words, but that might have been for the best. It kept him from being pulled into it.

"...Your neck is gonna start hurting."

He blinked, and turned over to where Pu'ar floated. Was he looking up again? He hadn't even noticed this time.

"You know, if you want to go, I think you could make it."

"Hey." He gave a slight chuckle, summoning a bit more offense than he actually felt. "Come on, we've climbed stuff like that before, too."

"I know." Pu'ar glanced up at it. "That's why I said you could do it."

He huffed. "...What makes you think I want to? It's just some stick in the ground."

Pu'ar's expression looked much more offended than his had. But then...Pu'ar was right. No one knew him better, honestly. He might have been in love with Bulma, but...Pu'ar had been his friend, had gone through so much more, for much longer.

"...Yeah, okay. But what about Bulma?"

"What about me?"

He tried not to jump too visibly when he realized she somehow crossed the distance between them without him even _noticing_ it. "Ah-Bulma!"

She planted her hands on her hips and puffed out her cheeks, frowning up at him. "You're not planning to start climbing up there too, are you?"

"Uh."

"Don't you know how _dangerous_ that is? We don't know how high it goes up, or what it's like up there!"

"Yeah..." He scratched at his cheek. "But...I mean...it's not like I'd leave you behind here, anyway."

"You could carry her!"

"He could _what_?"

(*)

Somehow, no matter how high they climbed, the patterns remained distinct, intricate, ever changing and _well painted_. It didn't look particularly ancient, either. Had the village itself really managed to find a way to make this? And yet still they were completely destroyed by that small army.

She couldn't help but think it was almost entirely due to the General and that strange jutsu he used. _Whatever_ it was. She'd felt it briefly, and Goku had described it happening. Possibly, he never had the chance to use it to its fullest potential against them. Maybe if he had, they'd have ended up more like the village below.

Well, maybe they'd have had to fight a bit harder, at least.

And maybe she hadn't been entirely truthful about the reason she wanted to climb it. Once she'd gotten her hands on it, once she'd gotten close enough to examine it...it wasn't made of stone. It also wasn't simply wedged into the ground somehow. This 'pole' was _made of wood_.

And it wasn't buried into the ground to keep it there. It was _planted_.

The only time she'd seen wood jutsu was from someone with Hashirama's DNA. The only time she'd seen a tree as large and intricate as _this_ from a jutsu was from Hashirama himself. Or the thing that Madara... _Obito_ claimed would unleash the global genjutsu.

That one worried her the most.

That tree _shouldn't_ still exist, even in her world. She _shouldn't_ be in this one.

Every few feet, the same rings jutted out from the tree. The designs carved into it were ever changing, mostly incomprehensible to her, but the handholds seemed to be reliable. No matter how high they climbed, that didn't seem to change. The trees broke apart for them, then fell off below them, faded into a distant green haze, and eventually vanished entirely.

The sun crawled across the sky as they climbed, and eventually, it vanished over the horizon.

Above, the tree disappeared into the distance just as much as when they started.

"I guess we couldn't have raced up here after all." Goku hadn't spoken much as they went. The climb wasn't all that hard for her, even without chakra to help, but it probably took a good bit of focus for him to climb it.

She summoned a small smile, even though he couldn't possibly see it. "Are you saying you're getting tired?"

"...Maybe...but..." He trailed off for just a moment, before his voice strengthened again. "I just wanna see what's up top even _more_!"

He reminded her a little of Naruto. He reminded her a little of Rock Lee.

She was pretty sure she simply projected familiar things onto him and anyone, anything around her. And that was why she climbed a giant tree in the middle of the freezing night, determined to reach the top just to see if there were a flower on the top.

Or, perhaps, a way home.

She'd fallen out of the sky, after all, hadn't she? She didn't need a wish to get here, and that meant _somewhere_ , _somehow_ , there had to be a way to get back where she belonged without needing to summon some magical creature and get something impossible out of it.

Her gaze swept across the designs on the tree.

In all the world, only one person was left who might know what it meant. After all the time and effort that went into its creation, no one would be left who knew what it was for, and only a handful of people would even know it existed. This was an entirely different world, not the Shinobi world, not even recognizable to the world of the Shinobi.

Something as terrible as this still existed in it.

It didn't really surprise her. She never thought this world was an escape. She never _wanted_ one, when her team was left to fight that monster all alone without her.

Her fingers tightened on one of the rings until a fine crack ran through it and split into the tree trunk itself.

_...Damn it_.

Just how long _would_ it take before she made it home again?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some renditions of the tower made it look painted, and that looks nicer to me than the plain colors it usually has. Thus, it is painted. There is good enough reason for it to be, so there.


	43. Chapter 43

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "When I catch up to them..." He grit his teeth, pulling himself up to the next hand hold. "First...I'm gonna kill them."

If they were going to build a tower _this_ big, they could have at least made a few resting points along the way. "...I can't believe they're still going _up_. Don't they ever take breaks? I mean...they could slip a little bit! Or...turn around."

Or try to summon Goku's golden cloud until it actually listened and rescued all of them from their own stupidity. His included.

"I should have brought that airplane capsule." Bulma groaned in frustration. "My arms are gonna fall off."

He...decided not to respond to that. _Her_ arms might have felt like they were going to fall off by holding her own weight around his neck, but _his_ were supporting himself, hers, and most recently a sleeping Pu'ar's weight. And also doing all of the climbing.

Not that he could expect anything else of her, though. The damn tower went off into _the abyss_ for as far as he could tell, and for what adventuring she'd done in her life, she was still chiefly a scientist. A climb like this wouldn't be reasonable for her to make.

It wasn't really reasonable for _him_ to make. He just...wasn't ready to try to climb down without falling to his death while he had two passengers messing up his balance. And also liable to die if he fell. Maybe it wasn't that great of a plan for the long term, as the distance between himself and the ground increased with every hour, but for the _short_ term it was great.

Or, at least good. Great would have been finding a way to stop climbing entirely without falling to his aforementioned death.

Actually, he would have preferred the airplane capsule. If his ears weren't so vulnerable to potential assault, Pu'ar weren't asleep, and Bulma _might_ not risk falling off just to wave her arms around or use said arms as a deadly weapon against him...he'd point out this more than made up for the submarine thing. After all, it was explicitly her role this time to make sure they had everything they needed, given he'd failed so spectacularly last time.

For a given value of...whatever.

His arms hurt, his head hurt, his shoulders and neck hurt, and his two craziest companions were still climbing a weird monument pole for no reason other than boredom. He'd started to feel a bit irritable.

He blamed it on himself for following after them, mostly. He blamed it on them for doing it in the first place.

He didn't really see a need to choose between the two in a hurry, given he wasn't apparently anywhere close to _catching_ them yet.

"Damn it, I can't even _see_ them yet."

At least if he could convince them to knock it off and come back down already, he'd feel less bad about not finishing it, too. And then they could all go back and maybe use the magic flying cloud to go up and figure out where the tower went up to.

Or suffocate and die if the damn thing went off into space and never ended. At least they wouldn't be _still. climbing_.

"When I catch up to them..." He grit his teeth, pulling himself up to the next hand hold. " _First..._ I'm gonna _kill_ them."

"And then _I'm_ going to."

What he'd do with himself, once he caught up to the two troublemakers and exacted his revenge...he was still just gonna keep putting that decision off until he ran out of time.

(*)

With the right application and rationing of chakra, a shinobi didn't really need to sleep for...well, she'd _heard_ that Gaara spent most of his life not sleeping. But, his sanity had suffered quite strongly from the lack of rest, so it could hardly be said that a shinobi didn't _need_ to sleep for years (provided they had the chakra), so much as that they might be _able_ to go without it.

It still wasn't generally something she liked to do. Burning up chakra she could be saving instead wasn't often worth the trade of going a night without sleep. There wasn't actually any opportunity _to_ sleep while climbing the tree, however, so it was climb without rest or give up on determining just what the tree was _for_.

Mostly, she was concerned about Goku. As a shinobi, she'd learned how to manage her chakra and keep herself energized and alert for as long as she needed to. Goku also had been climbing the tree without rest for more than a day. Without such training.

"...We can turn around if you want to, you know."

She couldn't really see him, as they still climbed on the opposite sides of the tree, but what little she saw of him was enough to surmise he shook his head. "Nah, now that I've gotten this far I wanna see what's up top!"

By now, she was almost certain it was more than twice the height of the tree that towered over the battlefield. Which meant she was only all the more interested in seeing what it was at the top. The tree shouldn't _be_ in the world anymore. But...what if somehow it had regrown, and over the years grown up more to this height somehow?

She shook her head quickly and dispelled that line of thought.

Stuck in the future...that couldn't be. She absolutely couldn't be. Because...there wouldn't be any way to go 'back' to her world if she were still in it. There wouldn't be any way to reverse time and go back to when she belonged. So. This tree couldn't be the same one.

And that was why she'd climb it. Just to prove it was something else.

(*)

He completely lost track of time. At some point, he'd tied what used to be his sling around Bulma's wrists just to keep her grip tight when he noticed she was drifting off over his shoulder. At some point, Pu'ar woke up again. At some point, he was sure the sun got up into the sky again, but that couldn't be, because the world was still dark from when it was before, right?

Who the hell knew.

He was in some kind of hell. He'd fallen asleep and fallen off the tower hours before, and this was his forever hell for being such a gullible idiot.

Maybe that was it.

For some reason he kept climbing anyway. If this was his after life, then he probably didn't have a choice but to climb. Who knew what was below him now? Was there anything below? Was there anything above?

He didn't know any of that stuff. He did know one thing, though: he was _so damn tired_ he'd actually started to go crazy. He hadn't figured out just yet whether the madness had set in before or _after_ he'd made the stupid decision to start climbing the giant stick in the ground, though.

(*)

Just under two days.

She'd nearly called an end to it at a day and a half when Goku's hand slipped, but he recovered before she could reach him, and determined with all the stubbornness she'd ever seen in him to keep climbing. The determination was _probably_ rooted in exhaustion...but fighting him while he had the energy to keep powering up the tree would be dangerous. If he wasn't thinking straight, he could knock himself off, and at this height there weren't many things even she could do to help either of them falling.

They climbed the tree without any substantial break for just under two days.

She wasn't quite sure how to calculate that distance, but finally making it to the _top_ put those thoughts on hold. The top of the tree wasn't a gigantic flower, furled or unfurled. It wasn't simply a pole, branches, or a flat surface as the world's highest and most useless look out tower.

In fact, the top of the tree was an even _more_ elaborately designed...dome. Or something. She didn't immediately see the top of it, as from the position of scaling the trunk, it took some acrobatics just to climb and jump up to...a set of stairs.

The interior of the tree...was stranger than the tree itself. Clearly it had been carved out when the tree was smaller, but nothing seemed to be trying to grow back inside it. For being so high up, there didn't appear to be any kind of accumulation of dust or debris, and...the few furnishings inside the building looked...not ancient.

So high, there was only the sound of wind outside. She didn't feel any slight vibrations or hear any sounds of movement from whoever might have been occupying the tree (somehow). And...there was no malice. No hostility. Probably the resident of the tree house would have had _some_ hostility to unannounced visitors if their presence was known.

"We made it..." Goku mumbled, looking a little bit dazed. Whether it was out of surprise that they did, confusion at what they found, or exhaustion...well, it was probably exhaustion.

Which settled it. Before any further exploration happened, he would sleep.

"Goku, lay down and rest."

"Huh...?" He blinked up at her, frowning. "But I just got here."

She shook her head slightly, and moved to sit down at one of the interior walls. "We've been climbing for days. If you want to replenish your energy, you'll have to sleep. Once we're done exploring here, we won't be able to make the trip back down without rest."

"...Oh..." He mumbled, voice thick with sleep. "I guess..."

He wandered over to her on heavy steps, and dropped to the ground next to her lap. It was a sign of how tired he really was that, not only did he make no attempt to delay rest until they'd at least explored the area first...but he didn't think of simply using the Nimbus cloud to return back down.

But in fairness, she hadn't really thought about it when she was climbing, either. She'd been too focused on going up to think much about going down, and...too focused on climbing to think about alternatives.

It only took a few moments for his breathing to slow down and deepen slightly, as he drifted off to sleep. She curled up slightly where she sat, and scanned the room in silence, moving no more than that. Perhaps it would do her well to sleep, too. It would help replenish some of the chakra reserves she'd used climbing the tree, after all.

It would also leave the both of them in a mysterious and uncertain situation without sufficient energy to fully defend themselves, in the middle of a dark structure miles in the sky, without a single guard.

Sleep, perhaps, would do her well.

She could wait another few days to rest, if she needed to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a short chapter because there's literally only so much you can write about climbing up a tower that has nothing remarkable on it. It's just a flippin' HUGE tower. There to be climbed. And climbed. And climbed.
> 
> Seriously, the absurdity of Goku spending 72 hours climbing a tower without rest is
> 
> madness.
> 
> It could have at least been one day, Toryama. That would have been reasonable in some small way. On the bright side, the next chapter will be much more interesting if only because it's not about climbing. a. tower.


	44. Chapter 44

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On the air, faintly...she thought she could smell some sort of food. But then, she hadn't eaten in more than two days, and she'd had no sleep in that same amount of time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Incidentally, did you know in canon Goku fell off the tower and had to fall asleep on it? He's did slightly better this time!

The night passed without incident. A few moments, the wood of the strange structure creaked when wind would gust through the open 'windows', but she sensed no other movement, and whoever belonged to the home didn't appear to return. Unsurprisingly, Goku slept through the night without stirring even a little, and then slept well into the day.

From the inside, she could see the strange shapes she observed on the underside of the tower were some sort of portholes that had been closed. If they'd been open, the last leg of the tower climb would have been easier than they were. If he weren't asleep, she would have gone to examine the clay pots on the far side of the room, or searched behind the screen that seemed to be for a working _bathtub_ on the other end. Instead, she could only observe them and wonder exactly who lived up here and _why_. And where they were.

He mumbled in irritation when he finally began to stir, and reached up to rub at his eyes.

"Mmmh...it's morning?" He sounded slightly disappointed.

It was much later than morning.

"Are you ready to explore this place?"

He glanced up at her, gaze somewhat sleepy, and blinked a few times. "What did you make...?"

"...What?" She frowned. 'Make'? Was he still not completely awake yet? Lingering in a dream somewhat, because he'd been so exhausted when he went to sleep the night before?

He pushed himself up to his feet, and started heading away from her. "I can smell breakfast..."

Breakfast?

Could he?

She stood a moment later, and moved after him. On the air, faintly...she thought she _could_ smell some sort of food. But then, she hadn't eaten in more than two days, and she'd had no sleep in that same amount of time. She hadn't had such little sleep since fighting in the war. In this world, there'd been almost no need to stay awake through any night.

If there _were_ food, was it natural, or could it be the person who lived in this place _was_ here? And if they were...did that person know they were present yet?

She followed after Goku as he walked guided by his nose. Without saying anything else coherent, he wandered back outside to the staircase they'd ultimately hoisted themselves up on the day before, and then up the stairs that wound around the strangely shaped structure.

The wind which howled across the open stairway wasn't something she found particularly pleasant, but the path seemed to be carved wide enough not to pose much of a danger in climbing it. Even though she was a _little_ concerned over the manner Goku seemed to be blindly stumbling up the steps. If anything gave out...

None of it did, however, and the staircase didn't prove to be all that long. (Then again, _nothing_ would have felt very long directly after the climb she'd just experienced.)

The topmost level of the tree house was entirely open air, closed off only by a roof and several decorative pillars. In the middle of the room stood some sort of decorative fountain with an even more elaborate vase atop that, and on the far side of the structure...stood a large cat on its hind legs, one hand holding a staff taller than itself, the other holding out an small metal can of something, lid torn open.

"I wondered just how much I would have to do to get the two of you to finally come up." The cat's voice sounded somewhat like a wisened old man's.

Talking cats, at least, were a thing she had some small amount of experience with. Even if the last time she'd dealt with any, she'd needed a special tool to understand them with.

"Ah!" Goku gasped, and sprinted toward the cat. "It's food!"

"...Ah?" The cat glanced down at its own hand, and then gave a little shrug, before handing it over to the eager child. "It was the only thing I had."

"The _only thing_?!" Goku sounded scandalized. And already had finished the small amount of food offered him. "But I'm _starving!"_

"Well, that isn't _my_ problem! I didn't invite you up to my house, you came on your own."

"But you _have_ to have food!" Goku insisted, voice raising an octave and hands gripping into fists at his side. " _Everyone_ has food at their own _house_!"

"Well I _don't!_ I wasn't _expecting company_!" His fur ruffled and stood on edge as he stared...up at the boy.

Perhaps it would be good for her to say something before their strange host took any further exception to their presence.

"You said you wanted us to come up here?" She walked up to where the two stood, watching the cat for any sign of hostility or aggression. Just because he'd offered food to Goku didn't mean he wouldn't suddenly become hostile. He was, after all, _a cat_.

"...Ah. Well." The cat gave a small nod, and turned away from them, walking toward the edge of the tower. "If you were down there any longer looking for my sacred water, you'd start throwing my things out of the tower, I assume."

"Sacred water?" She glanced down at Goku.

Goku frowned up at her, as if he'd expected her to know what it was and explain it to him. When it was _his_ world, not hers.

The cat turned back toward them, fluffy brows knit together. "...That is what you made this journey for, is it not? To partake of my ultra super holy water?"

Ultra...super...holy water.

"What's that?" Goku tilted his head slightly. "How's it different from normal water?"

"Well it-" The cat stuttered for a moment, and then paused. "...You don't know what it is?"

Well. They probably would have known both what the water was and what the monument tree's purpose was without ever needing to climb it if a rampaging army hadn't slaughtered the only people in the world who seemed aware of it at all. But then, a (not-ninja) cat in a treehouse miles away from that village wouldn't have known the state of the people below.

The cat coughed slightly, and stroked at its own chin-fur. "Well...well. Why then did you come to visit me, if not for my ultra divine water?"

...She wondered if the people in the village might even know about this water at all. If he were still testing out names for it, as he appeared to be, there might not be any legends about it at all.

"I wanted to know what was up top!" Goku nodded. "Sakura, too."

"We were curious what this was here for." It sounded a little less impulsive that way. "Finding anyone living up here was a surprise."

"But...there's nothing exciting here. It's disappointing."

"Excuse you. This is my home."

She frowned slightly, considering the cat. Could he...be some form of cat sage, perhaps? There was no telling what this world had, but if it were her own world, the situation would have led her to believe this cat was something like that.

"Who are you?"

The cat looked between them both for a few moments. "The two of you are the most foolhardy people I've ever met. I am Korin. A hermit. Or a cat god. I have been considered both."

"If you're a cat god, can't you make more food?"

" _No_."

A deity like being would explain why the people had created such an ornate place for him to live. It didn't explain _how_ they'd done it, yet. Unless the cat could control wood. But...he'd seemed convinced they were there to receive some sort of water from him, not something wood related.

"What does that have to do with your water?"

The cat looked up at her, quiet for several moments. "Then...you didn't hear that my sacred water will increase your strength many times by drinking it."

Goku immediately brightened. " _Really_?!"

"Really."

"I wanna drink it right now!"

She doubted it would be so easy.

Despite her doubt, the cat immediately pointed to the ornate vase in the middle of the room. "It's right there."

Goku, despite his enthusiasm, hesitated, and squinted between the vase and the cat. "...So...I can really have it? You don't mind if I drink it at all?"

"Not at all. Drink as much as you want of it."

She touched Goku's shoulder just as he went for it. "Why?"

Korin looked up at her and clasped his hands behind himself. "You've impressed me. I haven't ever met anyone as stupid as the both of you."

" _Hey_ -" Goku snapped, but the cat simply spoke as if he hadn't interjected at all.

"As a reward, you can drink the water."

Goku fell silent for a few moments, frowned up at the vase, and then her. "...Okay?"

She lifted her hand, and crossed her arms, taking a step back.

"Don't you also want the water?"

She shook her head slightly, watching the cat rather than Goku. "I don't need it."

"What an arrogant person." The cat's attention turned from her to Goku as the boy climbed up the tall fountain to where the vase stood. Just as Goku reached out to touch the vase, the stick the cat held lashed out and smacked him off of the fountain entirely.

She had already taken two steps toward the cat by the time he returned to his previous passive stance. Staring right up at her, not Goku.

"Ow!" Goku yelped from behind her. "What was _that_ for? You said I could _have_ it!"

"You can have it." The cat nodded. Watching her. "Hurry up and take it."

Goku harrumphed, and sprinted up toward the water again. Halfway up the fountain, the cat threw a pebble, and knocked him back down again when it smacked into the back of his hand. " _Ah_! What d'you think you're doing?!"

"What are _you_ doing?" Korin glanced over at the young boy with an expression that _might_ have been exasperation, if he had more human features to his face. "I told you to drink it."

"I'm trying to, but you keep stopping me from doing it!" Goku's shout had an indignant tone she almost never heard out of him.

The cat nodded, wandering closer to the fountain. "Am I? If you can't get it from me, then you won't be able to drink it after all."

Ah...

So it was that sort of test. Which was rather unfortunate, as Goku hadn't yet managed to get the bell from her in their own practice.

"Goku."

He looked up at her, face screwed up in something like an expectant pout. It looked a little bit odd on his face. Clearly, he hadn't quite puzzled out what the cat meant for him to do. But the cat _was_ being a bit...unclear. Considering their bickering so far, it was probably on purpose.

She dug around in her pockets for a moment, before she found what she was looking for. She lifted the small bell she'd found in Bulma's house, and shook it slightly. The high jingle echoed off of the wooden columns around them, making the sound linger much longer than usual. His face brightened suddenly in recognition, and then he gave a sharp nod.

"Oh! Okay! If that's the case, then I'm _gonna_ get that water from you!"

He leaped into the air, faster than she'd ever seen him go for the bell in their practice sessions.

Korin kicked him out of it before he made it halfway to the fountain.

He bounced off of one of the nearby wooden columns with a pained yelp.

Quite likely, she could have gotten the vase herself, if she wanted to. From the speed that the cat moved and the strength he'd so far displayed...overpowering or out maneuvering him wouldn't be _too_ difficult. The moment that she thought that, however, the cat's intense gaze turned toward her again.

It seemed like he was a _very_ good read of the atmosphere of people.

It also seemed, as Goku shook himself off and frowned across the room in irritation, that he made no more effort to _hurt_ Goku than she did under similar training situations. She didn't know the cat well enough to know whether his training would be any better for Goku than herself...but it was certainly training of _some_ sort. Or a test of Goku's skills that he required Goku to pass for some reason.

She crossed her arms.

"Tell me why I shouldn't simply give him the water myself."

"That's simple." The cat batted Goku to the ground while speaking to her. "The water will only have effect for the person who has earned it. If you are the one that takes it from me and you give it to him, the water will do nothing to him at all. It is, after all, _magical_."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Korin might be enjoying the opportunity to smack Goku around. Slightly.


	45. Chapter 45

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You, on the other hand, cannot even predict your opponent's moves. Even if I couldn't, you'd be no difficulty to stop. If you were here a hundred years, you'd never get the water." The cat made an amused sound, and walked away. "You can leave in the morning if you want to. It's too dark to go down the tower at night."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know what, writing this in Dragonball can be such a disappointment, because there's all those characters I can't touch. So many great characters who don't even exist yet. (Or might never...!)

Somewhat unsurprisingly, by the time the sun set, Goku was no closer to getting to the water than when he began. He looked significantly more ruffled. Korin looked almost bored. She was fairly certain that expression was a lie, however, as every once in a while she would catch a gleam in his eye that made her believe he was actually having a bit of fun batting Goku away from the water.

Then again, under the circumstances, he probably didn't receive very much company at all. Even less would have bothered to undergo his test for very long.

Goku gave an annoyed grunt when he dropped onto the ground again. "I'd have it if I weren't _so hungry_..."

The cat stared down at him (a rare feat for the cat, given Goku was actually sitting on the ground in that moment). "If you're hungry, you should have said something."

Goku looked scandalized. " _I've been saying so_!"

The cat tutted and wandered over to a smaller vase set near to one of the columns. "If you're so hungry, then I'll feed you something else."

"Uh? But you said you didn't have food..."

"This isn't the usual sort of food." The cat turned back toward them and first tossed a small thing in the air toward Goku, and then flicked another in her direction.

She caught it out of the air and frowned down at it in her hand. From what she could tell...it was a lima bean. Except...it was slightly too vibrant to be one she'd ever seen before.

"But..." Goku frowned down at the bean in his hand. "It's just a bean..."

"There's nothing _just_ about it." The cat huffed. "That is...it's not _only_ a bean. It is a senzu bean. Having been grown and harvested by a divine being such as myself, it holds magical power. Just one bean will remove your hunger and keep you full for ten days."

" _Ten days_?" She spoke, not Goku. "You've infused that much ki into these?" Theoretically, if the user could adapt their chakra properly, they might be able to infuse food with chakra and therefore grant the one who ate it that boost. But it would be an _overwhelming_ amount of chakra in one little bean to sustain someone for almost two weeks on it alone.

"No." Korin shook his head, crossing his arms behind himself. "As I told you, it's magical. I only grow and harvest it."

"Well..." Goku squinted down at the bean, holding it between his thumb and forefinger. "If you say it will..."

With some visible hesitation, he chewed the bean and swallowed it. It sounded surprisingly crunchy when he ate it..and a moment later, he blinked in surprise and straightened, tail ruffling and lifting up behind him as if he were shocked by something.

"Ah! It worked? I'm full!"

"...I told you it would."

She frowned down at the bean for a few moments, as Goku bantered with the cat and then charged with renewed speed and vigor. A naturally growing herb of some sort that functioned in a method similar to Akimichi soldier pills? Without any apparent downside? And it was simply _grown_ , not _created_? She didn't know about the water Goku fought so desperately to receive...but surely the village below would have known something about _these._

Exactly _how_ did he do it?

(*)

So, despite his efforts he did finally fall asleep. Honestly, if he'd fallen to his death as a result, he probably wouldn't have cared. He'd been climbing for two days straight. Forty eight hours. Probably fifty. Who knew?! His watch certainly didn't _actually tell time_ , and neither of his companions had been awake through the climb long enough to know how long _he'd_ been awake.

But he'd been awake a long time.

When he finally fell asleep, he would honestly have thought a never ending sleep wouldn't be too bad of a concept. Fortunately for whatever he'd think once he ended up in the afterlife, due to having slept more than once while he'd been climbing, Bulma was a little bit more awake and alert than him. When he'd started to doze off, she smacked him back awake. Being smacked awake wasn't fortunate. Not getting to rest and _also_ having a throbbing face did nothing good for him.

No, what she _did_ do, was remember that the useless watches they both wore without any hands for time on them weren't actually useless. They were used to shrink the person wearing them into something tiny enough to sit on one of the insets of the pole's engraving and safely fall asleep in it.

Pu'ar had to shape shift into something tiny just to fit and not fall off overnight either, but...it worked out. At least Oolong had decided to stay at home. Although...Oolong probably would never have agreed to climb the thing in the first place. And would have been smarter than _all of them_ in doing so.

Still, the watch worked out because he got to sleep for an inordinate amount of time and _also_ didn't fall off to his death in the meantime. Or kill Bulma and Pu'ar just because he happened to be exhausted from climbing the tower and they happened to trust him with something they reasonably should not have.

Dawn didn't wake him up, but his girlfriend's elbow jabbing him in the stomach did. Which was some time late morning, judging from the position of the sun when he forced himself to go and open his eyes hours before he'd wanted to.

"Hey, wake up. If we keep sleeping here, we'll probably _miss_ them going back down."

He groaned in annoyance and closed his eyes. Looking down just made him feel sick, and there wasn't much to look at in any other direction. "The two crazies haven't stopped or headed back down _yet._ I don't think they're going back down the normal way just because we're not looking." He frowned. "Or at all."

"You think they're gonna _jump_?" Bulma's gasp sounded far too worried for running on as little sleep as he had.

"Well...I don't know. Maybe this is endless...and we'll be climbing this for the rest of our lives." He tried again for opening his eyes, because they probably couldn't sleep up here forever.

She frowned and stared up the pole thing and then back down. "That's just not possible. Everything has to have an ending."

Yeah. That's what he kept telling himself, but here he was sleeping through the night on the pillar because his friends had climbed so high so quickly it was impossible for him to catch up to them and demand they slow the hell down. He was beginning to wonder about the possibility. "Is it even possible for something to be _this_ tall?"

"W...Well..." She stuttered for a moment. "There's a magical dragon that grants wishes..."

He huffed and stared up at the sky, where the pillar disappeared into the sky.

He squinted. Maybe it was the glare of the sun, maybe he'd gone a little crazy from lack of sleep and food and the thin air around them, but... "Hey, do you see something up there?"

"What?"

"Pu'ar."

His old friend made a tired sound and blinked up at him. "...Huh?"

"Can you fly a hundred feet or so up there to get a better look?"

"Uh?" Pu'ar frowned, and looked between himself and Bulma. "Why?"

"Because...I think I might see the end."

Or...he was just starting to hallucinate.

(*)

Goku flopped down on the bed with a frustrated sound. "I can't get close to him at _all_! Every time I get close, he always guesses what I'm gonna do and hits me first!"

The rest of the night had passed as the day had. At times, it seemed Goku was getting closer to the target, and then he'd slide back to where he began. Unlike even the best of food pills she'd ever seen, the effects from the senzu bean didn't seem to fade from Goku at all through the rest of the training session. Ultimately, it had only ended when _Korin_ had decided he'd had enough for the day.

She turned the bean in her fingers with a small frown.

"Well, of course you won't be able to hit me if you plan on it." Korin's voice cut through the quiet of the tower, causing Goku to startle slightly. "Your thoughts are as clear to me as spoken word."

Goku sat up immediately, eyes wide with shock. "Y- _You can read minds?!_ "

She frowned, and turned her attention toward the cat. If it weren't the exact same expression he _usually_ wore, she'd have thought he was smirking up at her. Well, at least he was looking up at her, all the same.

"You, on the other hand, cannot even predict your opponent's moves. Even if I couldn't, you'd be no difficulty to stop. If you were here a hundred years, you'd never get the water." The cat made an amused sound, and walked away. "You can leave in the morning if you want to. It's too dark to go down the tower at night."

Goku flopped back onto the bed with a frustrated growl and glared up at the ceiling. "He's _so fast_. If I were faster, I could beat him..."

She crossed her arms and leaned back against the wall. "You're not anticipating what he's going to do."

"Eh?" He lifted his head slightly and stared over at her. "But I don't know what he's going to do until he does it. He moves too quickly."

She nodded. Although the cat wasn't as fast as some of the enemies she'd faced...or Naruto once he'd gotten that golden chakra cloak of his. But it wasn't just the speed, she could tell just from watching Goku, he didn't recognize what the cat was about to do until partway through the action. Understandably. She'd taken almost three years of training to master the ability to anticipate her enemy.

"There's a limited number of actions he can make to effectively counter anything you do. If you can't keep up with him by watching him, then figure out what _you'd_ do if you were him." It was a bit more complicated, predicting the actions of enemies, but Goku had good instincts. It probably wouldn't do too badly for the short term if he relied on them.

He huffed, and then rolled onto his side, scooting closer to her. "...Why don't you want the water?"

She glanced down at him briefly, and then at the holes on the bottom of the tower. She'd opened them when they came into the room to sleep, as the air felt stale and thin, and the exchange of air from those helped to dispel that. "Strength...doesn't matter to me."

" _EH?_ " Goku pushed himself back up on his arms again, staring up at her with wide eyes. " _But you're the strongest person!_ "

She glanced down at her own hand, turning it over and flexing her fingers. Her green nail polish had chipped off at some point she couldn't remember. It was probably during the assault on the tower, but she hadn't noticed at all to be sure of that. In the blueish light, her skin looked so pale it was almost bone white.

The color reminded her of Kaguya, and of how pale Obito looked. Or the conversation did. Or sitting above a village that they were now _actually_ going on the quest for a wish to revive. One of those things reminded her of home and what she left behind just because she lost her balance, just because she didn't walk through that _damn opening on her own_.

"If you can't hit that person, it doesn't matter how strong you are. You'll never drink the water no matter how strong you are unless you can get past Korin."

_Next time..._

His expression fell slightly, and he frowned, not having a valid argument to offer in response.

_It might take a while._

"Getting stronger...isn't enough. I don't care if I'm strong. Strength alone...isn't enough to stand in front of them."

_Just wait._

_Next time we'll fight together._

She curled her fingers into a fist and quickly closed her eyes, shaking away her memories. "You have to be skilled. If you don't have the skill and the technique to apply your strength it isn't important how much you have. So I don't care about water that just makes me stronger."

Goku fell quiet for a few moments, looking down at the ground, thoughtful. For a few moments, she thought he might just leave the conversation at that. After all, she did give him his answer. If in...a wordy and roundabout way. Finally, however, he did look back up at her. His expression was keen, intensely curious. "...Who is them?"

A hand slammed onto the lip of the air holes in the floor, and a voice gave a shout from below. " _Anyone who wants to give me a hand up there can go ahead and do that now!_ "

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought, I should have appropriate music to write the end scene.
> 
> Naturally my music player suggested Poker Face.


	46. Chapter 46

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The world wasn't pleasant or peaceful. Even this one that seemed on the surface to be the sort of world she would have liked to live in (or anyone else in the Shinobi world who desired peace would) had things as horrible as this. Even if they brought it back, how many other people were killed by the army that they didn't know about? Was it her responsibility to bring them back instead of going home and helping her people?
> 
> Did it even matter to anyone at home if she did, anymore?

At some point she'd been taken in by the claims that there really could be a wish granting dragon creature, and assumed that it probably wasn't directly Kaguya. It was hard to pinpoint exactly when she started believing it (even on a temporary basis), but for now...she simply hoped it _was_ true for the sake of the burned village and the small boy without a family.

She leaned on the rails outside the upper part of the tower, staring down at the clouds far below. It wasn't all clouds, there was haze and other things that kept her from seeing the forest below. The entire thing could burn down and she wouldn't likely see much. If only that tiny settlement had burned, there was no way the cat could have known when it happened.

Her fingers tightened on the railing, and she closed her eyes a moment.

Was it irresponsible? She didn't even know if she could _believe_ in a thing that could revive the dead without some sort of horrible catch. But, hadn't Naruto done something for Obito? If that man hadn't been completely broken by the jinchuuriki separation, was it possible he could have brought someone back to life? If he could do that, then could something else?

The world...

The world wasn't pleasant or peaceful. Even this one that seemed on the surface to be the sort of world she would have liked to live in (or anyone else in the Shinobi world who desired peace would) had things as horrible as this. Even if they brought it back, how many other people were killed by the army that they didn't know about? Was it her responsibility to bring them back instead of going home and helping _her_ people?

Did it even matter to anyone at home if she did, anymore?

She bit her lip and frowned, forcibly shoving all of those thoughts away. Goku was still trying to get that water, and he was rapidly improving. If she sulked about at the edge of the tree-tower much longer, someone else watching his training would probably notice and come start asking questions.

She sighed, and released the railing. A moment later, something crashed between her shoulder blades at high speed. Something large and quite _heavy_.

She gave a shout of alarm at about the same moment she flipped right over the rail and fell from the top of the tower. Her fingers reached out a moment too late and uselessly swiped at air, instead of the bottom of the tower.

The missile that had knocked her off of her perch popped his head out from over the railing as well, expression horrified. " _SAKURA!"_

(*)

"So you're telling me, on the top of the _tallest damn tower in the world_ there's a _cat_?" He...he honestly didn't know what to think, because he didn't even know what he expected to be on the top other than 'nothing' and possibly at some point 'the afterlife'.

A cat calling himself a cat god didn't really count as any kind of afterlife he was willing to acknowledge.

"It's a tree." Sakura said from the other side of the room.

"Well..." Bulma tapped her chin thoughtfully. "I guess it's made out of wood. That explains how it can be so tall but so intricately designed."

"I'm not just 'a cat'." The _cat_ said. "I am Korin. I watch over this tower and my land, and-"

"A fine job you did of watching over them since they're all _dead_." Bulma cut in, expression about as unimpressed as he felt.

"I watch over this _land_. I didn't adopt the people."

"That's _horrible_!" Goku hissed, fists at his side.

The cat turned its attention to him. "Even if I tried to save them, there is no way I could have. The people who live there haven't contacted me in years, I have no idea what state they're in."

"Then...let me have the water so I can save them!"

Did...did Goku even _need_ the water? They'd handled the army pretty well, for it being _the Red Ribbon Army_. But then again, maybe it was smart not to just turn down the opportunity to get stronger. _He_ certainly needed to get stronger, if his performance over the past week had been any indication to himself.

The cat nodded suddenly. "Well then. If the both of you can work together to get the water, then the both of you can drink the water."

"Uh..." He frowned down at Goku. Well...it wasn't the first time they'd had to team up and fight something, right? "I guess I could help..."

Goku made an unconvinced sound. "...But I get to drink it first, because I started training first."

"Yeah...sure."

Honestly, it really couldn't be _that_ bad if they both tried at the same time.

(*)

"The both of you are _hopeless_." Korin shook his head in annoyance. "If that's the best effort you can put forth, you should have taken my offer to go back home."

Bulma sighed from beside her. "Going right back down after all the effort of coming up here would be kind of depressing if we don't get anything out of it..."

She glanced over at the blue haired woman, before digging into her pocket and withdrawing the small bean the cat had tossed her the day before. "There's this."

Bulma frowned down at the bean in her hand. "What...? It just looks like a lima bean."

She rolled the bean between her thumb and forefinger. "It's called a senzu bean. When Goku was hungry, Korin gave this to him and it filled him up completely."

" _Just that_?" Bulma gave a shriek of surprise. Which immediately distracted Yamcha and resulted in the man landing face first on the ground.

"...Yeah." She nodded, and pocketed the bean again. "That was yesterday. He doesn't look hungry again yet. Korin said that it would last for ten days."

"That's...amazing." Bulma's gaze turned back to where the two boys struggled to break through Korin's defense. "How could a little bean be able to provide _all that_? Normally, it takes huge meals just to keep him happy for half a day when he's training this much."

"I've been meaning to ask him about it...but I'm not sure he'll give me a straight answer about it." He certainly hadn't offered any kind of explanation as to why the water improved someone's strength when she'd made indirect (and one direct) question as to why and how it did.

He'd probably just insist it was magical.

"If I can get it back to my lab..." Bulma hummed softly. "Maybe I can figure out how it works. If nothing else, it'll drastically drop the food bill if I can just give Goku one of these whenever he comes for a visit..."

It might just be the only thing they _did_ bring back, however. While Goku and Yamcha both fought _hard_ , and Yamcha was doing quite well anticipating Korin's movements...they were the worst team she'd ever seen. Probably worse than Team 7 back in the bell test. Goku and Yamcha's moves would actively get in each other's way. Yamcha would trip over Goku, and Goku would accidentally step in the way of one of Yamcha's decisive blows and then complain and bicker at Yamcha.

Ever since getting the both of them to fight him at once, she had the impression Korin had to try even _less_ than before. It was starting to make her feel just a _little_ embarrassed for them.

It was starting to remind her of Naruto and Sasuke more than she wanted it to.

(*)

Two good things came of the day: he didn't spend it climbing, and he actually felt full. _Somehow_.

He reclined on the bed Korin had set up for him, and looked around the room, not quite yet ready to go to sleep. Pu'ar curled in a ball on one of the bins of water in the tree house (he'd taken an experimental sip of the water when no one was looking to see if maybe it was extra water the vase kept, but to no effect). Bulma slept on one of the blankets near him. Across the room, Goku curled up against Sakura's leg and hip, while she sat against the wall and...appeared to sleep.

Probably _actually_ slept. It wouldn't be as weird to be sleeping so high up in the air if she'd been doing it as long as she had, probably. She also slept further away from those open things. Honestly, he was kind of worried somehow himself or someone else might go and roll off of the place while they were sleeping.

He huffed and rolled onto his side.

He felt sore. _Much less_ sore than he expected to feel the night after climbing the damn t...ree, but sore. That was probably a good sign that he was at least training himself again and whipping himself back into shape. Getting into teamwork with Goku was...weirdly difficult.

Maybe he was just worried the problem was that Goku outpaced him so far he dragged Goku down. Then again, the problem might have been he'd gotten too distracted worrying about that, and couldn't anticipate his friend's moves, let alone Korin's. He needed to...keep his head clearer in battle, instead of worrying about whether he was good enough for the battle or not. He _knew_ that.

He needed to pull himself together already, and stop worrying so much about something that _didn't happen_. Near-miss brushes with death and tragedy were just a part of living the life he chose. It'd been a while because he'd started living with Bulma in the middle of a peaceful city having a life without all the risk and violence he was used to. But he _knew_ better than to let his thoughts get the better of him when it was important.

He needed to stop thinking so damn much and just go to sleep already.

He groaned softly, and buried his face in his hands.

If he pretended it was just too bright in the room because of the moon, then probably he could get to sleep without thinking about anything else. He had a hell of a lot of sleep to catch up on...and they still had four dragonballs to get after they got their hands on that water.

The sooner they got their way past the cat, the better.

(*)

Wind whistled past her, as Goku's face quickly shrank away, arm thrown uselessly over the edge.

In this situation, there were many things a shinobi could do to escape. With the right summoning scroll, or with the right summoning contract, she could simply bring an escape _to_ her. With the right jutsu, she could (apparently) make herself float on air. There were many things a shinobi could do in her situation.

None of them were things she was currently capable of.

_Strength isn't everything_.

She'd told Goku that only the night before last. She had more than strength, but it wasn't much that could help from falling at such a tremendous height.

If she focused and summoned her chakra properly, accessed the regeneration she'd only just mastered... _when_ she impacted, she'd probably survive. If barely. Stripes of her seal wove around her arms and down her sides, curled around fingertips lifted up and buffeted by the wind.

" _Sakura_!"

She turned her head, startled out of her thoughts, and spotted Goku climbing down the tower at a speed desperate enough to just about keep pace with her. The edge of the structure up top was so much further out from the trunk of the tree, though, that she couldn't reach out and grab his hand.

But she wouldn't, if she could. At their speed, at his position, if she grabbed hold of him, she'd only rip him off of the tower and into the air as well. Saving someone else would be _difficult_. She'd have to share her healing with him when they crashed into the ground, and he was...smaller. She was only fairly certain she'd survive it herself.

"Goku, what the hell do you think you're _doing_?" She shouted over the wind. Hopefully, despite the way their rapid descent drowned out her words, her anger would carry anyway. At the speed he moved, with his focus on her instead of his handholds, he could easily fall off. Out of reach. " _Stop it_!"

Of course he didn't listen to her. He must have heard her. She _shrieked_ at him. He had to have heard her. And he outright _refused to listen_.

Instead, for some horrible, _awful_ reason, he jumped off of the tower toward her.

_Why_?

Did he plan to call his cloud when it could have been _anywhere_? That was too much risk without an actual _summoning_ contract! Surely, it must have been some attempt to catch her and get her to the nimbus cloud...but..

Her arms wrapped around him protectively the moment she made contact with him, hastily connecting her chakra network with him to afford some small amount of protection.

A moment after that, her back crashed through the top of a tree.


	47. Chapter 47

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Whatever Goku's crazy plan might have been to save her (and himself, who was the one in actual, real danger), he didn't get the opportunity to enact it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I have at least the next twenty chapters pretty well planned out and the worst part is that I just want to get to the end of those chapters to what I have planned there. Ugh. Such impatience.

It all happened _incredibly_ quickly. The cat hit _him_. He hit _Goku_. Goku hit Sakura.

After that, everything got a bit hazy. The pink girl vanished over the edge, Goku and Bulma screamed, and a moment later, Goku had jumped off of it as well.

He thought that Goku might have actually _jumped to his death_ for a bit, until he realized that Goku had probably just gone down the tree itself in an expedient manner. Which could have been good as, considering how tall it was.

Bulma slumped down against one of the pillars, hands tugging at her hair, and Pu'ar spun around in circles in the air, worried. "Oh...if only I could have gone with him! I could help! I could become a net to catch her with!"

He turned on the cat, who had said nothing, and simply stood there with...a shocked expression. For a cat. "Aren't you supposed to be a god of this place? _Do something_!"

"Th... _That's not the kind of power I have_!"

This...thing. It didn't protect the village that _protected its land_. It did nothing to repel invaders. And it _wouldn't even save his friends_?

"Then what the hell _do you do_?!"

For a few moments, the cat was quiet, and simply stared down at the ground.

(*)

They narrowly avoided being impaled on a tree. Under the circumstances, that _almost_ would have been a less painful and damaging thing to do, rather than slam into the ground below.

Whatever Goku's _crazy_ plan might have been to save her (and himself, who was the one in actual, real danger), he didn't get the opportunity to enact it. She could have told him it was too late when he jumped, if he'd given her the opportunity to. But then...he hadn't listened to her at all with what she _had_ said, so it probably would have been a waste anyway.

They crashed into...something.

For a moment, she thought that the speed they traveled at simply made the ground seem less ground-like than she expected. It might also have dulled the pain of the impact, as well.

When she opened her eyes, however...all she saw was gold.

"U...uh?"

Goku slowly lifted his head as well, looking around them.

So. Gold. She was definitely not the only one who saw they were surrounded in gold?

"What...?"

As if his words broke whatever moment existed around them, the gold immediately vanished, and she crashed into the ground.

Her momentum was gone, however, and the crash was...just a little bit unpleasant. "- _Oogh_."

Goku stumbled off of her, once the impact with the ground forced her arms open, and looked around the area in a confused daze. "That...was..."

" _YOU IDIOT_!"

He wasn't harmed from the fall. Somehow neither of them were harmed from the fall. Whatever that moment where that world turned gold _was,_ it safely stopped their movement, and then made them fall from a much lower height.

Goku would, however, be harmed by _her_. If she had any say in it.

The _first_ thing she did was smack him right into the base of the tree trunk. " _Don't you ever do that again_! You _would have died_! You would have died for _no reason_!"

He rubbed at his cheek, where she'd slapped him, and looked up at her with a frown that would have been almost comical were she any less _livid_. "I was _gonna_ stop the fall-"

" _No you weren't!_ " They were too close to the ground. The flying cloud wouldn't have been able to help without smashing them into something else, the magical extending pole he had wouldn't have worked. Nothing would have successfully stopped their fall without hurting them both at that point.

She pressed a hand to her forehead and sighed forcefully.

Honestly. It reminded her a little bit of something stupid Naruto might do. Except Naruto had things that would have allowed him to _do_ something, instead of getting hurt.

"...It was the nimbus cloud."

She blinked, and looked down at him. "What?"

His hand was still rubbing absently at his cheek, but he scanned the area around them with curiosity. "...I'm sure it was the nimbus that caught us."

"...Your cloud is too small for that. It would have had to be a huge cloud to catch us like that."

"Yeah, but...it was..." He frowned. "It _felt_ like the nimbus! And it looked like it, too."

She tilted her head back slightly and scanned the area. "But...then where is it? How did it make itself so big and then disappear?"

He shook his head. "I...dunno. It's never done anything like that before."

And yet...why didn't it stay around to lift them back up? Why did it disappear and make them fall? Could it have been...some kind of inherent...jutsu about the place? Something that made people stop just in time, in case they fell off of the tree tower? Because...well. That _would_ make sense.

But...how exactly did it _work_? And what relation _would_ it have to the cloud creature Goku knew?

She planted her hands on her hips, and craned her neck back toward the sky.

"...We have to go and climb back up this thing again now, you know."

(*)

He felt dizzy. Moreso than he did normally just being up so high. It was a _good_ kind of dizzy, at least...but he really didn't need the extra dose of it. His heart probably didn't need the strain of the rest of the day, either, but the day didn't feel like catering to his needs.

Sakura and Goku both looked a bit exhausted, but they didn't appear to be injured. Which...was a (very pleasant) surprise, given at least one of those two had fallen off of the tower just an hour before.

"You're both okay?" Bulma knelt down next to where they both sat on the ground, looking over both of them as if she specialized in medical science instead of mechanical science.

"Yeah. Nimbus caught us!"

Sakura frowned slightly, glancing over at Goku. " _Something_ caught us. It looked golden...but after a moment it disappeared."

He frowned, crossing his arms. "Wait, 'us'? Goku...what did you do?"

"I was gonna get Power Pole to slow down our fall, and then summon Nimbus."

Sakura sighed softly and shook her head. As she didn't say anything...that must have been a conversation they'd already held on the way back up. Which... "Nimbus disappeared? So you called it back to get up here afterward?"

Goku blinked and stared up at him for a few moments. "... _Oh_! We could have called Nimbus to fly us up!"

Yamcha smacked his own forehead with his hand. It stung...slightly more than he expected it to. Huh.

"Wait...you climbed back up?" Bulma looked back toward him, as if he could somehow confirm that, and then to Goku again. "But...you only fell down an hour ago."

"Uh..." Goku blinked, and then looked up at Sakura. "...Did we?"

She nodded after a moment. "It might have been something like that."

"You've been training well." The voice of the cat sounded through the room, announcing the presence of the building's resident. Who had done absolutely _nothing_ for Goku and Sakura except stand around and look at the ground guiltily. He'd thought perhaps the cat had refused to come down and help the two of them up just out of guilt. "The first time you climbed the tower, it took you days. Today it only took an hour."

Sakura frowned over at him. "How do you know how long it took us to climb it the first time?"

" _Well_..." The cat fell silent for a few moments. "Now that you're here again, aren't you interested in getting this water, Goku? Or will you be going back down again?"

He blinked, and shook himself before standing up with a determined expression. "Right! I'm _definitely_ gonna get it today!"

(*)

He didn't get it. A few times he almost did, but his teamwork with Yamcha remained inferior enough that the two ended up working against each other as much as they worked with each other, keeping Goku away from the water for yet another day.

He'd been grumpy enough about that to go to sleep without stopping to talk about anything, and the two who had spent all day working were both asleep before she or Bulma fell asleep. Had it been three days now, or four? She was rather good at keeping track of time, but in the isolation of the tower, it slipped away from her somewhat more easily than normal.

She pursed her lips and tapped her fingers to her lips. Since working with Yamcha, Goku's progress had slowed. Gone backward in some ways. He'd gotten _much_ stronger, she could tell that by the difference in speed when he climbed the tower, but simply using his increased strength and speed wasn't helping him when it came to working alongside Yamcha, whose abilities trailed him noticeably.

If it was just a test to see if Goku was good enough for the water...why had Korin changed it once Goku got closer to getting it?

"Hey." Bulma's voice cut through the quiet of the room.

She glanced up in the direction of the other woman, who had crossed over to sit next to her. "Mm?"

"Goku...he's really a quick study, huh?" She turned her gaze to the sleeping boy as she spoke, a fond smile fading onto her face. "I remember...he was really amazing before, but then he went and trained with that old pervert for a few months, and when he showed up at the tournament, Yamcha said he was _incredibly_ beyond what he was before."

She nodded slightly. He _had_ improved during the old man's training. Even though she hadn't known him long before he'd started it, the difference between what he was capable of at the start and at the end was obvious enough as it was. It reminded her not a little bit of her teammates and their amazing advancements. "He's determined."

"It's amazing, though. It's only been a few days messing with that cat, and he can already climb _this thing_ like it's almost nothing."

Her own lips quirked into a slight smile at that memory. The speed he moved up the tower compared to last time _was_ impressive. It had taken all of her skill just to keep up with him without using chakra. And she'd...mostly only done that so that doing impossible feats wouldn't distract him when he was moving so quickly a slight mistake could have caused him to plummet off of the tower again.

If it were her, maybe she would have fallen just to test if the same thing would happen every time...but it wasn't worth the risk twice, if it meant trying to protect Goku from the fall as well.

"Boys...they're all about training, though." Bulma scoffed and shook her head. "I mean, Yamcha barely even got here and he jumped right to getting that stupid water, too."

"Well...if the two of them worked together better, it would have meant we'd be leaving here sooner..."

"It took you days to climb the tower too, didn't it?"

She blinked, and turned her attention back to the blue haired woman, whose gaze was now definitively on her alone.

"But you weren't helping Goku try to get the water when we got here, were you?" The woman's gaze narrowed. "Why is it you could climb the tower in just an hour this time, if you weren't spending all this time trying to get strong and fast enough to get the water too?"

"Ah..."

Well...she hadn't been trying to _hide_ her ability. At least...not all of it. She'd shown it off a few times. Surely it had to have been obvious she could from the start? "I...was just keeping up with Goku."

The woman leaned in closer toward her, brows knit, and then sat back again. "...Why aren't you getting the water for Goku, then?"

She lifted a shoulder slightly. "Goku has to earn it himself or it won't work, apparently."

"Okay..." Bulma pursed her lips, and pressed her hand to her chin. "But if that's the case, why can Yamcha help?"


	48. Chapter 48

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She sprinted across the room, ducking around the cat, and very nearly flung herself over the edge after him.

She watched as the two struggled for the water through yet another day. At one point, Yamcha ducked down without warning, and Goku used his back as a boost to leap for it further than he could have normally done so. His fingers grazed the vase holding the water and nearly knocked it from the staff Korin had transferred it to.

Their teamwork was improving, without any solid instruction she found that pretty impressive.

More important than that, however, was what Bulma had said. What she'd been thinking before that, as well. So far, she'd assumed this was some sort of trial to earn the water by someone who was willing to allow them to improve and train as they went until they reached it. Presumably because he had some interest in giving them the water, and the water could do nothing without being earned.

But then...he'd went out of his way to make it more difficult, by forcing Goku to work with a teammate. He'd pointed out Goku's increased strength and speed when Goku hadn't noticed it himself.

He was allowing two people to compete and work together to get the water when only one would be able to drink it, if what he said was true.

She glanced over at Bulma, who stood with crossed arms, watching the display with open suspicion.

" _Goku_!" Yamcha shouted suddenly.

The smaller boy spun as he sprinted in the direction of the cat. As they met, Goku grasped his wrist and flung the man toward the cat. Rather unsurprisingly, Korin lunged out of the way of the human missile, and Yamcha landed harmlessly on the ground a foot beyond him, rolling to a crouch. Goku, meanwhile, drew his red staff and charged the cat. The swing of his staff wasn't to much effect, as Korin managed to side-step the attack in time regardless.

In the thin air, Yamcha's accelerated movements made almost no sound at all. Most likely, that was the reason Korin didn't notice the action at all. That, and the _remarkable_ speed that Yamcha seemed to achieve whenever he used his technique. Rather than attempt to grab the vase, however, he connected the back of his heel with the top of the staff, and sent it flipping out of Korin's hand and through the air.

" _Got it_!"

"What are you _doing_ -" The cat shrieked as Goku jumped.

Two things happened at once. Yamcha, having pushed himself too hard in the thin air of the tower top, collapsed to the ground in a wheezing fit, hand clasped to his chest. Goku, having jumped after the vase at high speed, dove off of the edge of the tree right along with the vase.

_Damn it!_

She sprinted across the room, ducking around the cat, and very nearly flung herself over the edge after him.

She very nearly slammed her face into his.

" _Ah_!" Goku stared up at her in surprise, barely halting his upward movement in time to keep from headbutting her.

For an unreasonable moment, she thought he'd somehow learned to fly, and that was the actual reason for the nimbus-like rescue experience the day before. She'd very nearly moved on to the more reasonable answer of the nimbus simply catching him when she dropped her gaze and noted his...tail.

Ah.

He must have caught his fall by wrapping it around the tall railing as he fell. Well, it was rather useful, having a limb like that.

After a moment, he grinned and pressed a hand on her shoulder, using their respective positions to flip over her onto the ground behind her. "It's okay! See? I've got the water now!"

She was about to turn around and _smack him upside the head_ for doing something that risky...but the moment she turned back around, she spotted Yamcha on the ground, still struggling to get a full breath. His breathing didn't sound nearly as worrying as it had when he first collapsed, but Bulma still knelt over him with a tearful and worried expression. Pu'ar too, who had been dozing off a moment before, floated close to him.

Korin moved closer to him at the same time she did, and held out one of the small beans. "Give him this."

"He can't _breathe!"_ Bulma hissed. "How is he going to swallow?"

" _Carefully_! Now hurry up and give it to him. It'll fix him."

The woman still looked suspicious, but finally nodded and took the bean from his...paw. With some hesitation, she pressed the bean between his lips, and Yamcha struggled to swallow it.

Sakura knelt down next to him just about the moment his breathing began to level out again, and what color had still faded from his face (his breathing had, after all, already been beginning to get under control again) returned with a pink flush.

"... _Ugh_..." He made a slow attempt to push himself up, then.

"Yamcha?" Bulma spoke, voice as worried as her expression. "Are you...?"

"Still...feelin' kinda dizzy." He gave a weak laugh. "Pretty sure that's normal for up here by now, though. Guess it's no more Wolf Fang Fist tricks while I'm here."

"Well..." Korin huffed. "A senzu bean won't help you with the presence of air."

"Exactly what _did_ it help him with?" She frowned over at the cat. His reaction had _nothing_ to do with hunger or depleted energy, so what would a bean with extra energy boosting effects do for him?

The cat gave a knowing nod. "It's a home remedy."

Goku, who had been silent since he'd realized the distress Yamcha was in, quietly walked up to his friend, and held out the water. "Here. You drink it first. You're the one who got it away from him!"

Yamcha shook his head slightly. "Nah...you've been trying longer. I can wait."

Goku squinted down at him for a moment, lips pursed in disappointment. Eventually, he gave a little shrug. "...Okay, but you drink it next! Then we can both be strong!"

He hesitated then, and looked over his shoulder, squinting at the cat. "...I can drink it now, right? You won't attack me."

"You got it fairly. Of course I won't."

"Okay!" He nodded quickly, and then unstopped the bottle. With some small amount of excitement on his face, he tipped the ornate looking vase up and took a few gulps of the water. When he finished, he set it down firmly in front of Yamcha, looking quite proud of himself.

Yamcha reached out for the vase next, and Bulma's gaze turned sharp, watching him closely.

"...Huh..." Goku frowned down at himself as Yamcha started to drink it as well. "...Nothing _feels_ any different." He spun in a slow circle, looking down at himself. He jumped. Korin ducked his head, trembling slightly. Goku spun the other way, and then frowned over at Korin. "How come I don't feel any different?"

Finally, the soft sounds the cat made strengthened to outright laughter, and Korin tipped his head back slightly, snickering and laughing rather loudly. "Because it's only _water_!"

Yamcha broke into another coughing fit in the middle of drinking the water. " _What_?"

(*)

_Damn._

_Stupid._

_Cat._

Honestly, he didn't even care that he felt stronger or faster. He didn't care that he understood Goku's fighting style better and could fight alongside him better. _That was totally immaterial_. He'd just spent days of his life- _days_ -struggling to get _tap water_!

He rubbed his hands over his face in frustration.

He felt like a fool, even though he wasn't the only one not to figure out what was going on. At least if he'd known it was just training from the start, maybe he'd have applied himself differently! He probably wouldn't have ended up with that whole fit of almost not being able to breathe, too.

" _Ugh_." He thumped his head lightly against the trunk of the sadistic tree. Climbing down had, admittedly, been less of a terror than he expected it to be climbing up it. He was still pretty damn tired from the ordeal though, and as happy as he was to be in a _normal_ amount of oxygen...the charred remains of the village around them just reminded him of what they _could_ have been doing instead of wasting time training with that cat. It wasn't like they couldn't just come back if they wanted to.

Bulma stretched and fiddled with the watch on her hand, and Sakura stood near where Goku was playing with a tree, testing out his new strength and speed. The bright side of their delay was that the Nimbus _certainly_ wasn't busy with the kid any longer. The nimbus still had taken a few minutes since Goku called it to appear.

Was that normal? Did it only rush up if he were shouting it in a worried voice? He honestly had never really looked into that before, given that...he couldn't ride the thing anyway. That, and Goku always seemed to have how it worked down just fine.

"Where are we going next?" Sakura was the one who called out, and her attention was on Bulma.

The woman looked up in surprise, and then dug around for her radar for a moment. "...Well..." She frowned, just as the cloud floated down into the clearing between them all. "There's three dragonballs to the south east of us. It must be someone else trying to collect the dragonballs."

"So...it's the army." He sighed.

Bulma also sighed. "...It's probably the army."

Goku pumped his fist enthusiastically. "Alright then! Let's go!"

(*)

They'd already spent a portion of the day training and climbing down the tower. She found it somewhat unsurprising that, after also waiting for the Nimbus to arrive, they couldn't make it to the base of the Red Ribbon Army (or at least wherever they stored their dragonballs, which was likely one in the same) on the same day they set out from the towering tree.

Still, the cloud moved faster than any of them could go on foot, and moving horizontally at _all_ was an improvement over what they'd been doing for nearly a week. It had been useful enough to help store chakra while using a minimal amount of it (though it would have been wasted had she needed to use it when she _fell_ ), but it did little to advance their cause of collecting the dragonballs.

If Korin could read their minds, perhaps that's why he'd fabricated the lie of the water. Simply offering to improve Goku's skills would have been tempting, but...the promise of a quick boost had kept him even when he would have wanted to resume his search. Or at least it kept the rest of them.

She shook her head slightly. In the end, it hardly mattered. They were nearly finished collecting the wish, if it worked as it claimed to. The people they were looking to help were already dead, and not in any pressing danger of worse. Her way home...

That route wasn't a possibility anymore...so she would have to find another way. Chances were, she had plenty of time in which to do _that_.

The capsule house deployed with a puff of smoke, and their two miniature guests appeared a moment later. Pu'ar immediately moved to Yamcha's side once he was of appropriate height.

"There isn't much room...but it's still more than what was in that tower."

Bulma ran her fingers through her hair with a sigh. "More importantly, it's got a _bathtub_ , right? I could use _twenty_." She offered a flirtatious smile toward Yamcha. "What about you?"

His face turned more than one shade of red, and whatever he stuttered, she couldn't quite make out from where she stood. Goku, naturally, ignored it completely and wandered toward the house with his hands behind his head. "I wonder if there's any food left..."

"Aren't you _full_?" Pu'ar gasped, moving after Goku as the other two also started toward the house.

"Uh...I guess..." Goku turned slightly to look up at the floating...animal. "But beans taste _boring_. I wanna eat something better."

As the others disappeared into the house, she settled down on the grassy hill they'd dropped it on top of. After this outcrop, the land they'd been flying over ended, and in the haze of the night, she couldn't make out any other land past the water. Somewhere in that direction, though, lay three more dragonballs. And the heart of the army that terrorized the world.

This fight...it wasn't really _hers_. She _had_ one to fight. One that she missed, one that she failed her friends and teammates on when they needed her. One they might not have needed her for beyond that point for...but _she wasn't there anyway_.

Honestly. The lives of some small...settlement, not even a proper village? What people thought or did in this world, why should it matter to her? It was just another dimension, right? Was it even _real_? Was it just some strange projection of Kaguya? A genjutsu so powerful nothing she did disrupted it at all?

Her gaze stared down at the grass, and her fingers dug deep into the ground.

Was anything even _real_? Did it even _matter_?

Didn't she have loyalty to _her_ village, to _her_ friends, to think about? _Damn it_ , what the hell kind of a ninja was she, giving up the one opportunity she'd been presented to go _home_ and be of some use to her village for the sake of some other village whose welfare was of no consequence to Konoha.

She slammed her fist into the ground, and watched it split violently down toward the sea.

_Strength...isn't important at all_.

She slumped onto her back, and stared up at the unfamiliar night sky.

All the strength in the world wouldn't do a _damn thing_ to bring her home again.

Not one.


	49. Chapter 49

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone dropped onto the grass next to her, and the flickering light in her hand vanished in a violent swirl of chakra.

Across the sea, not even particularly far, was the Red Ribbon Army's headquarters. He'd done enough research on them to know that, even if it wasn't the most obvious place for three dragonballs to be gathered, under the circumstances.

Sunlight didn't color the edges of the horizon yet, but it would soon, which meant they'd be leaving in a few hours. By noon, every one of them would be neck deep in Red Ribbon Army forces. He'd fought _two._ Really, he'd fought _one_. He'd ended up with a broken arm out of it, and Bulma and Pu'ar had nearly...

Magical water that made a person multiply in strength somehow, he could actually believe in that. There existed a gigantic tree that soared off into the lower atmosphere and a gigantic floating dragon that granted wishes of anyone who asked it something, and a boy with a tail who transformed into a gigantic monkey if he looked at the full moon. He was even supposed to believe in a girl who fell from the sky and came from a different world. Magical water, he could believe in that.

A few days of climbing and training?

It wasn't so easy to believe he was strong enough to take on the rest of the army with just _that_.

Even with Goku, even with Sakura's bizarre strength and impossible ability to _undo_ damage...would they even make it out of that base alive? Did they even have a _choice_ about going after the army, when those people had three of the dragonballs?

Maybe he could have asked for more back up...but in the end, wouldn't he just be staring out at his own reflection and watching the sun rise, worrying about even more people?

A slim hand touched his, and intertwined fingers with his own.

"You won't do any good if you don't sleep the night before."

"I've...been asleep." He huffed slightly, and glanced down at his blue-haired girlfriend. She had to know what they were about to go into - maybe not in as much detail as he did, but she had to _know_ \- and yet...she didn't even look worried.

She leaned her head against his arm, gaze at the window, rather than up at him. "If you keep on getting worked up, I'll get worried."

"Who says you shouldn't be?" He frowned, and turned his gaze back to the sky outside. "You know, the Red Ribbon Army's pretty fierce. If you and Pu'ar go in there..."

"We'll be surrounded by the strongest people in the world." She nodded, and pulled away from him, crossing her arms. "Besides, I've been on adventures like this before! I won't let my boyfriend and my best friend go in there without doing something to help, too. Without me, you three idiots would probably get so distracted fighting everyone the army will sneak the dragonballs away and make it a giant waste of time."

"Uh..." He blinked, and trailed off for a few moments.

She...was probably right. Goku would, at least. The rest of them...it wasn't like they'd have the ability to keep checking the radar during the fight into the base. And there could be any number of soldiers in their way.

"It's like I told you." She smirked up at him. "You three be the brawn, and I'll grab the dragonballs! Once we have those, we could just...blow up the whole place."

He squinted down at her. "With _what_ explosion?"

She waggled her finger in front of his face, other hand on her hip. "You won't get to know if you don't get to sleep! Now, go on! Go to bed before you keep me up so long I miss out on my beauty sleep! A delicate girl like me needs _extra_ sleep to look her best in the middle of an invasion."

(*)

She'd gone enough days without sleep recently that she didn't feel any great need to get it that night. For a bit, she focused on chakra to ensure she still had all the grip and knowledge of it that she should. Earth jutsu to seal the crack she made at the start of the night was easy, all the other things she allowed herself to test (non-destructive, nothing that would cause her companions to come running out of the house to investigate) worked just fine as well. She didn't have any difficulty remembering or calling on them.

Nearly a year, but Lady Tsunade's training was not so easy to shrug off.

The rest of the night she devoted to ki. Ki was the basic elements Chakra was composed of. Raw ki could be handled in much greater quantities without the risk to the system and body that chakra posed. If she could figure out how to manipulate ki with nearly as much flexibility as chakra could be manipulated, perhaps...perhaps she might find a way to open up doors into other worlds like Kaguya and Obito could.

It was a complete waste of time and effort. A fool's goal and an idiot's dream.

She felt better just practicing it anyway. If she could master manipulating it, then...it was just possible she might be able to use it in place of her chakra and allow her own seal to grow at full power even when she had use for her chakra doing other things.

She didn't really notice the time pass, and no one came to disturb her.

Her fingers and hands and arms had burned, singed, and otherwise suffered recoil from failed attempts to manipulate more ki than she had before, but she ignored the injuries while she worked. They'd be injured again in the course of the training, and it would waste more of her chakra to heal them each time rather than do it at the end.

Someone dropped onto the grass next to her, and the flickering light in her hand vanished in a violent swirl of chakra. If her body weren't already trained to deal with such surges when fighting and using complex medical techniques, she might have winced slightly at the sudden surge of chakra. The focus it took to draw on ki instead of chakra seemed to result in drawing _too much_ ki for the task.

She'd feel appropriately frustrated at being stymied at one of her greatest talents...but the person next to her retained her primary attention.

"If I knew you could sleep out here and miss out on Goku's snores, I think I'd have done that to start with."

She turned her gaze over to the taller man. "If everyone slept out here, he'd want to do it too."

"...Yeah, probably." He gave a light shrug. "Low move, pawning him off on someone else, though."

'Pawning him off'? In truth, she hadn't even planned on remaining outside all night. If Goku had wanted to come and find her, he could have. Quite likely instead, he ate his fill of actual food in the house and fell asleep right there. The implication was a little bit offensive. A ninja didn't have any trouble sleeping near teammates, and she didn't try to sneak away from her friends.

Not...unless the effort was in some way to protect them, anyway. 'Pawning Goku off' on someone wasn't even something that crossed her mind. Often.

"I didn't mean to fall asleep out here." She shook her head, watching him with a skeptical frown.

"Yeah, I'm sure." He nodded. "Which is why I'm guessing you didn't."

...She wasn't really sure where he was going with his line of conversation. Although they'd fought in a tournament together, he wouldn't have known that. Surely what she'd shown as herself would mean he didn't doubt her ability to contribute to taking down the military base, though.

He scrubbed his fingers through his hair after a moment. She wasn't intentionally being silent-wasn't even quiet long enough for it to be notable-but whatever it was that had really brought him out to see her must have been eating away at him enough that he was too impatient to wait for an answer out of her either way.

"Hey, since I mean...you're out here...and there's no one else around..." If she didn't know him better than to assume such a thing from him, she might have given him a warning glare at the direction it seemed his conversation was turning. "...there's something I've been meaning to ask you about."

...A private question, though, she still hadn't really expected. Was it something about her home, or questions about the jutsu she used? Or chakra. He did seem very interested in it while searching for the other dragonball.

"We're gonna fight a whole army tomorrow." He turned his gaze toward her then, expression determined, a little harder than she'd seen on him before. "It's not a joke. This army is _serious_ , and it's dangerous. After we're done with it, there's still some _other_ dragonball out there somewhere, and it might be somewhere worse."

"I know that..."

He spoke over her. "And then once we collect those dragonballs, Goku wants to make a wish on them. To bring back that village."

She drew up her knees to her chin and frowned intensely enough to arrest whatever else he'd been about to say. "That's _stupid_."

"E..eh?" He looked...taken aback.

"I have a home. I have a village and friends, and duties. Going home is the _most important_ thing to me." She shook her head slightly, turning her gaze away from the expression he wore. The shock on it slowly drained away into outrage as she spoke, anyway. "I'm _not_ Naruto. I don't think...that I could ever be. But I won't put what I want over the lives of other people. I probably...wouldn't ever talk to him again if I did."

She might not ever get the chance to speak to him again, anyway.

He ran his fingers through his hair. "But...you know...Upa can stay with us. If it's that important...I think...Goku might agree to get you your wish first. He _was_ doing this all for you to start with, after all."

...She'd been studying her knees, considering training she hadn't bothered to do in ages. When he spoke, she stopped. Simply...stopped. And processed his words again, to be certain she understood and didn't hear incorrectly.

_First_?

"...What do you mean, _first_? There's only one wish."

"...Um." He frowned over at her a moment, and then rubbed at the back of his neck, expression sliding right over to awkward. "You...ah. Bulma and Goku did mention that you can gather them each year, right?"

...Had...had they? She did remember hearing of wishes in a _plural_ tense, but...later on, it had been referred to as singular. And a thing like this had to be only once, didn't it? Because, if somehow it were Kaguya, she'd have destroyed things already when some fool summoned her.

She frowned over at him. "...You're certain of that?"

"Well-" He gave an awkward laugh. "Considering a friend of mine made the worst wish _ever_ and they're still around to be gathered again...I think so. It's been about a year now, I guess."

She very nearly dropped her head into the ground in frustration. She would have, but it probably would have caused the house behind her to collapse. A year...deciding whether she or Upa should wait for a year, if the 'wish' _really_ worked as well as it supposedly could, was far less of a dilemma than which one should be allowed to have it at _all_.

Part of her wanted to punch someone. Yamcha was the only one present.

She suppressed the urge to smack him over it. Her stare might have been a bit of a glare all the same, though. "Why _are_ you out here? If you knew we could make more than one wish, why ask me anything about it at all?"

"Ah...actually..." He grimaced, and then sighed, slumping his shoulders in defeat. "...Bulma's making breakfast. There's smoke. _Everywhere_."

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sakura is indeed dealing with a great amount of emotional turmoil at the moment. Her decency and loyalty are somewhat at odds, and rather unpleasant all around. It's, even more, somewhat uncommon for her to deal with. (with having been reminded of there being more than one wish possible, though, perhaps it will help.)
> 
> ...Hooray for Yamcha asking the questions with obvious answers!


	50. Chapter 50

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He woke up today knowing he'd be taking down the headquarters of the Red Ribbon Army with only two other people. He still didn't find that he felt completely prepared for the sheer amount of danger and chaos flying around him right after they arrived.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's the big five-oh. CRAZY. Red Ribbon saga is crazy long. And we cut out Penguin Village and shortened the Korin Tower arc.
> 
> A good thing to remember about Sakura's mental state is that even when she first arrived, it was during the Kaguya arc, after the Fourth War ended up with her helplessly standing in Susano'o while Sasuke and Naruto planned to do something effective. Girl has some understandable issues with her ability to measure up to her team.

The most efficient way to rid the house of the smoke was apparently to reduce it to capsule size again. She didn't question it because she barely understood what explanation Bulma _did_ give on the matter. She knew the woman well enough to realize by now that a more in-depth explanation would only leave her entirely behind.

Which was what they should have done with the woman herself, at that point. An assault on an enemy military base wasn't exactly a good place for someone who couldn't defend themselves, and there was no telling what kind of resistance they'd encounter both capturing the dragonballs and destroying the army itself. It was exactly as they'd done to Pu'ar for the same reason: the danger it presented Pu'ar far overwhelmed the help the shape shifter would provide to their current plan.

Unlike Pu'ar, Bulma had insisted. In the end, they had agreed that she should remain in her diminutive size and ride along as she did in the Nimbus. Sakura volunteered to be the one to keep her, because...if something _did_ happen, she'd be able to help the woman best. Probably. If something happened to her at such a small size, there might be little she could do.

Before long at all, they hovered over the walled off castle. She'd been expecting an island of some sort, but it seemed they were on an entirely different landmass, well hidden within a forest. Well hidden on foot, at least.

"Let's go, Nimbus!"

The cloud spiraled down toward the castle and fortress. Right past a very small looking plane. Or something that looked quite a bit like that, anyway.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, the flying craft immediately began to shoot at them. Bulma shrieked, and covered her ears with her hands. "I'm not bullet proof! Do something!"

"Alright...Nimbus, loop around!"

The golden cloud immediate swung back upward, and then made a graceful loop backward. A graceful, speedy loop. The craft following them wasn't nearly as quick, back still facing them when they leveled out behind it again. Goku made a cheerful sound, and the cloud charged ahead. His fist extended ahead of them, and the force of the charge was enough to break cleanly through both sides of the vehicle.

"Try to get us near to the middle of the courtyard!" Bulma shouted. "The dragonballs are that way!"

"Okay!" Goku shouted over his shoulder. You two can jump off there. Yamcha and me will deal with the rest of the army while you get the dragonballs."

She couldn't help a slight smile of amusement at that. Expecting to deal with an entire army of people in the time it took to find dragonballs with a radar? It was almost rude of him to expect her to take so long retrieving them. "Try to save at least one or two of them for us."

"If I _have_ to..." He grinned back at her after a moment. "But I'm only gonna leave you _two_."

The skies around them echoed with warning sirens, and quickly began to fill with other flying crafts. The nimbus cloud swerved left and right and looped around through the air as it dodged constant gunfire. Really, they wouldn't be able to get much closer than _this_ if they wanted to advance without a fight. It would be easier to have that fight on the ground. She glanced down at the roof not far below.

"Here." She tapped his shoulder, and then jumped off of the cloud to the roof below.

Bulma screamed.

(*)

He woke up today knowing he'd be taking down the headquarters of the Red Ribbon Army with only two other people. He still didn't find that he felt _completely_ prepared for the sheer amount of danger and chaos flying around him _right_ after they arrived.

He'd known this was an army...but the massive amount of defense in the fortress only made it more clear just how _much_ they'd be fighting off an _entire army_. If it wasn't an even worse idea to openly invade the place, steal the dragonballs, and then run away and leave the army time to come after him...he'd have been loudly suggesting that instead.

Well...as loudly as he could manage, when his stomach kept flip flopping around every time Goku would spiral or plummet from the sky to avoid a burst of fire. It probably wouldn't have been that loud, honestly. But it sure did motivate him to _not be on the cloud_. Splitting up might not have been the best defensive decision...but if they wanted to cause the most ruckus and take attention away from Bulma (and Sakura, he supposed), multiple points of attack were necessary.

"Hey, let me down here!"

Goku looked down at him. "Huh?"

"We'll split up." He gestured toward the...house in front of them. "If there's two of us, we can take down more enemies at once and keep them from getting away, right?"

Goku blinked. "Oh...oh! Okay!"

The golden cloud swept down to the ground, and he was lifted out of Goku's shirt and set on the ground. He didn't actually return to full size until after he'd scrambled under a rooftop. Because there sure were a lot of bullets being fired, and it wouldn't be a good thing if bigger bullets were a bigger threat.

Well..at least 'bigger bullets' gave him an idea as to what to go for. The resistance the base was giving them would be minimized if their armory were gone. Particularly if there was anything extra nasty hidden there. And, maybe the three leading the assault could handle most of the things the army could use...but Bulma wouldn't be able to. The less people and things shooting in her direction, the better.

Armory it was.

(*)

An explosion rocked across the base, as a plane crashed into a nearby turret. She flipped off of a wall and slid under a swath of fire from one of the vehicles above. With her passenger, even if she'd felt like throwing away chakra and her training, she couldn't risk walking through all of that unnecessarily: Bulma was a small target, but her vital points were clustered together close enough that anything which managed to hit her _would_ hit more than one vital point.

Dancing through the waves of bullets and mini explosions was, comparatively, far easier than avoiding Sasori's poisoned blades. She ran in the direction her pocket companion indicated, kicking the helmet off of one soldier, and leaping into the air to shatter the balcony three of her attackers stood on.

She bounced, flipped, and sprinted through the courtyard in the directions Bulma indicated without hesitation...or very much resistance at all from the base. For being such a fearsome army, the bulk of their forces were barely worth notice. Clearly, they'd stationed their strongest men to defend the dragonballs they sought or found.

Which meant, wherever these would be hidden was the actual resistance.

"If you don't quit jumping around I'm gonna be sick!"

"You want to walk through the next ball of fire?"

Bulma grumbled something incoherent for a few moments, before giving an irritable response. "We could've just snuck in here at night and avoided this in the first place."

That...wasn't untrue, probably. She, at least, had the training and skill required to sneak in and grab the dragonballs. But it wouldn't have eliminated the threat of the army. Much as this plan wasn't much of a 'plan' as 'attack all at once and see what happens', it was likely to at least cripple the army in the process of retrieving the balls. And that would be good, considering what the army got up to unchecked.

"It must be in that building up ahead!"

"Got it." She jumped onto a low-flying plane, and then hopped across three of the smaller rooftops. "Can you see with that cross-section which floor they're on?"

Not that she had any problem with blazing through each of the floors on the building ahead...but considering the last time she did it, it was in the pocket of one of their prisoners...perhaps it was best to know from the start where the dragonballs were hidden.

"Uh...yeah, give me a minute."

She flipped backward to dodge a lone bullet that shot from a nearby tower, and flung a section of the roof beneath her at the man with the gun. A large section.

"Okay, it looks like they're on the top floor!"

She nodded. "Right. Hold on."

The jump, though it required a bit of a running start, wasn't too bad. Bursting in through a window in an explosive spray of glass, however, could easily have dislodged the small woman from the impact of it. And it would be difficult to catch her without also hurting her if that happened.

As glass scattered across the floor and rained down on the street below, she somersaulted to a stop.

In the room, her company simply stared down at her in dumbfounded shock, words cut off mid-sentence.

(*)

Aside from collecting the dragonballs, he hadn't been told any other kind of plan. The others _seemed_ to have some kind of plan, since Sakura left with Bulma and then Yamcha _also_ wanted to go his own way...but no one told him anything about any other plan.

Actually, he was perfectly okay with that.

There was no way his friends would need any help doing whatever it was they were doing. Bulma and Sakura had the dragon radar, and no one in the whole place seemed to be dangerous enough to give Sakura any trouble anyway. Yamcha was _also_ really strong, so whatever it was he wanted to do, he'd do it too.

No one gave him any kind of instructions about what to do, and that meant he could probably do whatever he wanted to. What he _really_ wanted to do was try out his new strength after all that training he did with Korin. A big evil army like the one that killed all of Upa's village was a really good opportunity to do just that.

He grinned as he jumped off of the Nimbus, and spun through the air. As he twirled, he drew Power Pole, and struck out at the nearest plane. It barely felt like he used any strength, but the stick went _right_ through the metal armor, and the entire vehicle exploded a moment later.

_Alright_!

He dropped to the stones below with a confident grin, surrounded by a group of startled looking men.

"I'm gonna get through all of you as _quick as I can_!"

Because, after all, now that they were split up doing their own things, he had to compete with Yamcha _and_ Sakura, or there'd be no one left for him to fight at all.

(*)

In retrospect, as he kicked the _fifteenth_ soldier through a wall (window, or hall, really the little differences didn't matter as much after a dozen) he wondered what the _hell_ he'd been thinking when he split off from Goku. Other than not wanting to get shot at when he was approximately the size of the bullets shooting at him.

Not that looking for the armory was a bad idea! He still thought that was perfectly good and smart to do, considering the fact that they'd easily get flanked when they dropped _right in the middle_ of the base.

The problem really was that he had _no idea where the hell that armory was_. Maybe he should have gone with Sakura and Bulma first, and hoped to find a map near the dragonballs. Or gone for the center where there was probably a map and maybe the armory.

Instead, he just ended up running through bigger looking buildings and taking down enough soldiers to make him feel less like an action hero and more like he was stuck in an infinite loop. Seriously, the rush of storming an enemy base faded in the second building full of food and bedding.

This building, at least, had winding hallways and locked doors he had to kick (or punch!) down. It was promising.

He sighed as yet another figure appeared in front of him, still indistinct in the haze of smoke that settled over the base due to all of the ruckus of their invasion (at least half of it had been caused by the army shooting at _itself_ ). "Hey, you don't happen to know where your armory is, do you?"

The faint smile that grew across his lips at his own humor faded immediately when the smooth voice responded.

The smooth, feminine voice.

"Did you really think a line like that was gonna work on _me_?"


	51. Chapter 51

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How was this in any way fair? It wasn't.
> 
> It was not fair at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Goku's battle with Red Ribbon Army took 4 or 5 days in canon. Here, 11 so far. But, in fairness, the manga utterly ignores travel time usually.
> 
> One day we'll say 'lucky Yamcha' instead of 'poor Yamcha'. It'll probably be the day after he gets a wish granted. And only that day. Because he'd end up the one person who got someone else to wish next year 'Yamcha's wish? Yeah, I wish you'd undo it."

How was this in _any way_ fair? It wasn't.

It was not fair at all.

Red Ribbon Army had a wide variety of soldiers, human and nonhuman, of varying size, shape, and toughness. So of course the one _female_ soldier he found had to be coming right _at him_.

By the end of his quest for the Dragonballs, barely surviving a gigantic monkey out to...eat, trample, or just kill him in some other way and narrowly avoiding getting baked to death in a giant metal pit...wishing away his fear of women seemed like a pathetic use for a wish. In retrospect: why did he think _any_ wish was pathetic after Oolong wished for panties?

"Well, it's not gonna be any fun for anyone if you spend the whole time running and hiding." The woman's voice called out from down the hall.

It wasn't _specifically_ his plan to run away, he'd just...sputtered and stumbled over an appropriately witty comeback for so long that she attacked him, and he'd run away just to get away from her and gather his wits about him again. He wasn't _terrified_ of women. He interacted with them on a daily basis!

Sort of.

The point was, he'd come a long way from when he'd cut and run just by spotting Bulma out in the wilderness while he beat down Goku. _He wasn't just running away from the woman because she was an attractive lady_.

She was also shooting at him, and that had to count for something.

"Oh come on." She appeared around the corner without warning, expression completely unimpressed. "Weren't you planning to beat information out of me? Now you're not even trying."

Ugh-

Instinctively, he shrank away from her, defensive. "Look...I-I don't want to have to _hurt you_..."

Her eyes widened in surprise for a few moments, and then she burst into loud laughter.

He...he wasn't really sure what to do. She wasn't being _actively hostile_. He couldn't just _punch her_ while she was laughing, could he? That was...just... _come on_!

It was a really, _really_ good idea he'd decided to go alone, and not where Goku could see him. Because! _Because_ , it wasn't like he couldn't interact with women in a...normal and natural way...in day to day ... _why the hell was she still laughing at him_?

He grit his teeth in irritation fueled by his frustration. "What's _wrong_ with you?"

Her laughter died down to chuckling when he spoke, and she wiped away a tear from the corner of her eye, before she leaned closer to him (uncomfortably so), and pressed the hot end of her pistol to the underside of his chin. "...I guess you're right. Amusing as you are, you're with that kid destroying everything outside, aren't you? And you're in my way. Shame."

Probably even at close range a bullet like the one in the gun wouldn't do him any harm. Probably.

He grabbed the barrel of it with one hand and ripped it out of her hand before she could shoot anyway. As long as he didn't have to think about hitting her, or when he should or shouldn't make that kind of an attempt, at least he knew how to deal with violent threats. "You've got it wrong. _You're in mine_."

(*)

Two men were present in the room. A tall, darker skinned man, and a short man with so light it was almost translucent in the light of the explosions outside. The shorter one had been hunched over a pedestal that faintly glowed with the familiar light of the dragonballs their own did. For a few moments, both of them simply stared down at her in surprise.

Bulma, wisely, ducked into her shirt and didn't say a word.

She stood once she was sure the woman was well hidden, and brushed off fragments of glass that stuck to her clothes. Chances were, if she tried to, she could grab the three dragonballs from the room and leave before the two men did anything to stop her. A must slimmer chance stood that she might be able to convince them to give up the dragonball in exchange for their lives.

But then, the army would only regroup and try again in a year. or two. Or even three. They'd terrorize more people, they'd slaughter more than Goku would ever be able to find out about to help. Maybe one day after she was long gone, they might even succeed in one of their attempts. That was the danger of having something like that available every year, wasn't it?

She took a step forward and the short, red-haired man immediately grabbed the dragonballs and took a step backward.

The taller man took a step in her way. "You came right here. I wonder how it is you were able to guess just where we kept the dragonballs?"

"Hm?" She lifted her hands and made a show of straightening her gloves. The shorter man continued to back up, toward a set of stairs on the other side of the room. Apparently the building either had one extra (small) floor than it looked, or he expected to be able to jump off of the roof and escape in the chaos. Neither one was possible while he insisted on taking the dragonballs with him. "What makes you think I came for them?"

The man's lips curled up into a knowing smile. "No one would be reckless enough to attack the entire _Red Ribbon Army_ over one small village in the middle of a forest. Or the mountains."

So...then she was right. That soldier the general had protected ran back to this base. And somehow, someone survived that tower and told the army of them as well. She'd suspected so from what the General had said. If he looked so confident, though...he either overestimated his forces, or he was much more powerful than she'd seen yet.

"You have _no idea_ how much you're underestimating..." she clenched her fist and started toward the man again at a sprint. "How _pissed off_ I am about 'that village'!"

(*)

He wasn't going to say he was _surprised_ she could hit so hard as a woman. He was just...surprised she hit so hard.

And also she happened to be a woman.

He winced and rubbed at his jaw. For a moment there he'd had the upper hand. He'd broken her gun and beaten back her attempts at grappling him into submission. Right when he'd been about to finish her off, though, she'd stumbled a step backward and given him an accusing, innocent look.

It wasn't like he _stopped_ or anything. He wasn't _tricked_ by something that blatant and simple! He just happened to hesitate slightly, and she kicked _really quickly_. By the time the stars cleared out of his vision, she was already disappearing around the corridor.

As much as it probably worked best for him to just let her go and deal with all the _other_ soldiers in the army (literally every single one at once would have been preferable, honestly)...she was running _somewhere_ and it wasn't to where he knew the exit to be.

...It was _probably_ the armory.

He ran after her as soon as he gathered his wits back about him, and skidded around the corner. He didn't see her, but at least there was only one path to go, and it was another turn. She might not be hopelessly gone. And even if he didn't catch her, at least it would point him in the right direction toward what he _actually_ wanted.

If he did catch her, he'd...figure out what to do after that.

Maybe he'd just close his eyes and imagine she was a big, fat cat. He'd have no problem at all summoning up the hostility and violence he needed out of himself to take down the woman (cat!) then.

An explosion rocked the building he was in. One which was closer than 'plane just exploded on the roof'. Probably, that was where his prey had gone. Or rather...where his...woman- _nope_.

He shook his head quickly, ending that line of thought before it could distract and fluster him any further, and raced in the direction of the disturbance. Fortunately, he didn't actually have to go far. Just a short distance from where he was already, stood the woman he'd been chasing. With her back to him, even.

He didn't take advantage of the opportunity to take her down without any further resistance...but at least it was for a good reason this time.

He was too busy staring dumbfounded at the gigantic _vault_ the woman had just blown open.

She whistled (not at him) and strolled forward into the vault. Full, not of weapons and armor and secret trump cards, but of zenni, gold, and other valuables. It wasn't exactly the desperate act of a loyal soldier looking for a way to fight against impossible odds that he'd imagined.

...This...this was not what he expected of attacking the Red Ribbon Headquarters to steal their dragonballs. This was not it at all.

For a little while, the woman didn't even seem to notice he was still standing there, drawing out a large canvas bag and piling things into it with utmost leisure and calm. As if screams and gunshots didn't fill the air from outside, and the building itself didn't shake with each missed rocket or downed plane.

He blinked, and shook himself back to focus. So, maybe she _wasn't_ completely loyal and dedicated like he assumed all of the military force would be. That just meant it'd be easier to get the information he wanted out of her. Right?

...Right.

_Come on, man. This isn't the first time you've knocked information out of someone_!

It was, actually, when it came to women. But he'd just...just not think of her as a woman and it would work out great! _Yeah_.

Before he could stall any longer and talk himself out of it, he sprinted across the room and, with a fierce roundhouse kick, knocked the bag in her hands all the way to the other end of the hall. "Sorry, but if you want all that money, you're gonna have to give me something _I want_ first."

Ah-ah _damn it!_

"I- _Information!_ I want! Ju...Just tell me where the damn armory is and you can go get your stuff!" Why did he even open his mouth at all?

The woman flicked some of the short purple hair that had fallen into her eyes out of her face, and frowned up at him. "And just what are you going to _do_ if I say no?"

"Th... _that's obvious_!" Obviously he'd just beat it out of her.

Or...wait and kick the money out of her hands again. That worked pretty well so far.

But he'd get violent with her if he had to and she provoked him! He was a martial artist! A very powerful, dangerous, and highly skilled martial artist. He used to be a feared _desert bandit_. He could fight a woman if he really, _really_ wanted to and she was obviously trying to hurt him or one of his friends.

_Mai_!

He didn't have any trouble with Mai at all!

...

...Did he?

Her eyes were wide with shock as she stared up at him and she placed her hand to her chest, resting it there almost delicately. "You'll...overpower me all alone here, and let out all of your pent up frustration on my petite and feminine form?"

" _WHAT?_ " He sputtered and choked on his words with such sudden force that he broke into a coughing fit. " _N-no!_ NO! _I-_ "

She punched him in the face.


	52. Chapter 52

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> His face hurt.
> 
> His pride hurt considerably more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You may have noticed update is slightly slower in speed. The reason for this is because we've ended up in the second half of Dragonball, and all of the things that happen here have very big consequences. I must be careful of what choices I make.

She'd give the general, commander, soldier-whatever he was-one thing: he had good reflexes.

He managed to just barely lunge out of the way of her initial strike, air from her punch slicing through his shirt even as he moved. He also did a decent job of dodging the splinters that exploded outward from the table that she contacted with instead. If she wasn't already so angry, she'd have been impressed by his abilities, including his recovery time.

Before she'd even turned, he'd shrugged out of his jacket and attacked her in response. She narrowly ducked his downward punch as soon as she turned her head, hair fluttering up into the air as she moved out of the way.

His reflexes weren't good enough to escape her next strike. Her fist sank squarely into his stomach, and he had barely a moment to choke out a gasp before the impact sent him flying back into the far wall. She'd held back somewhat, just to ensure she didn't punch right through him in front of a noncombatant civilian like Bulma, so...he simply slammed into the wall with a painful sounding crunch, rather than going through it entirely.

She straightened up again and cracked her knuckles.

He had good reflexes, but he was hardly any more threat than the other soldiers she'd encountered in the base so far. Maybe that first tower had been a fluke. Or, maybe she really had been holding back too much, letting her guard down, and letting Goku do all the work through it.

"The dragonballs are up above, right?" She turned toward the stairs again, glancing down at her passenger. Bulma's hair looked messy, and the woman herself looked a little bit rattled...but there weren't any obvious injuries. Which was good, because jumping into the room the way she did could have been a problem if something went wrong.

"Ah..." The woman glanced down at the tiny device in her hands. "...No, they've moved on now. Wherever he went, he must have escaped through it."

She sighed. Of course he did. Hiding out the next room up would have been too easy, wouldn't it?

(*)

His face hurt.

His pride hurt considerably more.

He only stumbled back a few steps, but the woman used the time and opportunity expertly...to run right past him. Maybe he'd impressed her by crushing her gun before, but...part of him was a little bit surprised that, yet again, she made no attempt to press the opening her surprise attack gave her.

She _really_ wanted that money, apparently.

By the time his vision cleared again, she'd crossed the hall over to where he'd thrown the bag of money, and stood with one foot in the window sill. When his gaze found her, she froze, tensing and ready to...either ready to fight again, or to jump. He couldn't read her, and he was somewhat tired of trying to understand her. Or...interacting with her at all, honestly. His face hurt everywhere.

He tapped into his ki, ready to strike with Wolf Fang Fist and...if he couldn't get the information he wanted, at least _end the fight_.

A moment passed.

She was a soldier-probably officer, given her skill-of the Red Ribbon Army. She'd broken into the army's vault and packed about as much zenni and valuables as she could into her bag, and then avoided all conflict with him that didn't involve getting _out_ of conflict with him. And it sure looked like she was about to bolt from the base with all that money.

Did...it even matter if he let her go? She wasn't among the people who destroyed the village at the base of Korin's tree tower pole. She'd...okay, she'd done a good amount of things to piss him off, but she hadn't done any _direct_ harm, despite being his enemy. And she was deserting the army.

Attacking her now, while satisfying, would have been a waste of his effort. Effort necessary to deal with the rest of the army that _wasn't_ running away right now.

He clenched his teeth in annoyance, and finally relaxed once more, straightening and frowning at her. She hesitated a moment, processing his actions...and then tossed him a flirtatious wink and jumped through the window.

...If he had to excuse his facial bruises with running face first into a wall, he was never going to tell _anyone_ about that encounter.

Ever.

(*)

"What direction did he go?" With Goku and Yamcha out there, he must have found _some_ stealthy way to escape, or he'd be caught by the two of them long before he ever made it out of the fortress with the dragonballs.

She couldn't risk assuming he wasn't smart enough to have a back up plan, when he carried the dragonballs.

"He must be in a plane...or something." Bulma huffed lightly. "He's moving East at high speed."

"Got it. Try to hold on." She'd be able to catch up to him, but the speed she'd need to go...there wouldn't be much room for mistake when she had a passenger. Leaving her with Goku or Yamcha would just mean leaving her in the middle of the chaos of an assault. It wasn't an ideal situation...but the safer of the two situations was with her.

Air rushed past her, sending too-long hair out in front of her, as the soft sound of a capsule deployment filled the room.

She spun immediately toward the person she'd thought was unconscious, at least. A tall metal...thing stood slightly in front of where he'd been.

Bulma gave a soft gasp. "...Oh no..."

The man grinned in triumph as he settled himself in a seat atop the vaguely humanoid metal..puppet, and a glass dome around him sealed shut. A tinny version of his voice echoed out from inside it. "It's a shame you had to go against us. The Red Ribbon Army could have used talent like yours."

_Talent._

What a ridiculous person.

She flexed her fingers, turning herself fully toward the man. The last person she'd fought hidden in a puppet was far more impressive than him even with his metal puppet. It wouldn't be nearly as difficult even protecting someone. "You wouldn't be worth my effort."

"Is that so?" The man bristled in his container. "Then...let me save you it." The arm of the puppet lifted, and a brilliant beam of energy filled her vision.

(*)

So he was back to square _zero_. Square zero with a bruised face and a sore jaw, running through buildings and taking down what few soldiers were dumb enough to still be present while Goku destroyed _everything_ in his path outside.

...Honestly, the only reason he hadn't given up on the armory as pointless in its entirety was that it might have something dangerous and unknown in there that someone desperate (or in charge) could use at any time.

...So it was _half_ of the reason he didn't give up. If he did give up before finding it, then he'd have just wasted a colossal amount of time while everyone else did useful things. And that would just be _aggravating_.

When he skidded around a corner, his gaze fell on exactly what he was looking for. Right behind a tall and imposing looking tiger person. Well. At least it was a guy. He might actually have just turned around and walked out of the base if he'd crashed into another woman. (...He'd have been strongly tempted to.)

"Sorry...but I'm pretty irritated right now." He shifted into an aggressive stance as the tiger-man turned toward him with a surprised expression. "I can't promise I'm not gonna beat you up a hell of a lot more than I need to."

(*)

The place on the floor where she'd been standing no longer existed. Charred paint gave way to heat-smoothed metal and stone, and a large chunk of the floor itself opened up into the floor below. The air above the hole twisted and danced with the heat left over from the blast.

For being an instantaneous attack, it packed a surprising amount of power.

So, she was glad to have leapt out of the way before it was too late. She might have been able to endure it with minimal to moderate injury...but her passenger wouldn't have fared nearly as well. So, she'd have to do her best to fight the rest of the battle without letting any of its blows hit, just in case of Bulma.

She reached next to herself, and flung the leather loveseat there at the beast of a puppet. It lifted its arm and blocked the piece of furniture. The impact caused a slight dent on its wide arm, and it stumbled back a step into the wall. Once the object crashed to the ground, though, it simply started toward her again.

"Just try to stay hidden if you can." She spoke quietly to Bulma as she readied herself for the next attack. "I'll try to finish this quickly."

" _You'll_ be finished quickly." The man had, apparently, gotten close enough to hear the latter part of her statement. He shook his head and laughed, before one of the arms reached up and struck down at her, attempting to backhand her right off of her feet.

She flipped over it at the last moment, and then dropped to the ground to dodge the fire that erupted from its palm as soon as she landed. A roll dodged his clumsy attempt to stomp her into the ground, and she kicked his other leg out from under him.

It teetered and crashed to the ground almost immediately...but despite its egg-like shape, it seemed neither too damaged to stand again, nor too ill-equipped. After only a moment of lying on the ground, white-hot fire jetted out of its palms, and pushed it back up to its feet.

She punched the arm that swung at her this time, and the metal crunched and snapped apart under the impact of her fist. The arm dropped uselessly to its side, and he glared through his glass container. The strangest part about _that_ was...why would he have chosen glass to house himself in? Just who did he think he was going to face in that thing?

The puppet shot backward, lifting its working arm, and shot something solid and...different looking at her. She couldn't immediately recognize what it was. She'd never seen anything like that in her memory...but then, there were plenty of things she'd only just seen while hunting down the dragonballs. Compared to the tree that was also a tower, something like the thing shooting toward her in the air wasn't all that remarkable or memorable.

She ducked and slid out of its way, closing the distance that he'd gained with his backward scramble.

Before she could do anything, though, the projectile that missed her contacted with the couch near to where she'd been.

And _exploded_.

The room rocked violently, bits of ceiling raining down upon them, and knocked both herself and the overbalanced puppet onto the ground, knocked a short distance further away from the original sight of the bomb.

Her ears rang loudly, and she shook her head to clear the sound and her thoughts. Better prepared for it (and better shielded), the man recovered somwhat earlier than her, stumbling back up to his feet in the machine while she still held one side of her head.

A moment later, it rose into the air...and smashed right through the ceiling.

"That's enough playing around!" The voice bellowed from its tin cage. "Failing to stop three invaders...the Red Ribbon Army will accept nothing so weak! Such failure is a disgrace!"

She made her way closer to the hold it created through the roof, and craned her neck slightly to watch it go up.

"I've had _enough_! With this...I'll destroy _every single one of you_!"

"Goku..." Bulma muttered, staring up at the puppet as it began to charge its attack. Was it concern? A cry for help from him? She couldn't quite place what it was supposed to be. " _Goku_!"


	53. Chapter 53

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bulma gave a sudden shriek as the weapon fired. "That's a giant bomb! It'll take out this whole place!"

Initially, chasing after the fleeing puppet wasn't particularly difficult. The hole it left in the roof would have fit about three of her, and the attic that the man with the dragonballs had originally escaped into was barely large enough to stand in. Even if she weren't _particularly_ good at leaping high, probably any genin with any sort of training at all would have been able to make the jump after it.

Getting up to the roof was, thus, quite easy. Jumping after it when it flew higher into the sky...also wouldn't have been that difficult. The difficulty _did_ increase the higher it flew, though, and the further away from a vertical leap it made its position...but she could probably do it. The problem was, it was _staying_ up there, and she couldn't just...float up to fight it where it was. She'd have to jump up and hit it, and then repeat the process until it exploded or she could knock it out of the air and keep it down.

More importantly, though, it wasn't just waiting around for her to find a way up to it. It spun in the sky, flipping upside down toward her, and a large compartment on its back popped open.

Sudden increase of distance, angry words, huge and awkward compartment on its back? She didn't need experience with puppets to know it was about to use a particularly unpleasant weapon.

Bulma gave a sudden shriek as the weapon fired. " _That's a giant bomb!_ It'll take out this whole place!"

The entire base? That fit with what the man had said before he flew into the sky. It also made it particularly difficult to protect Bulma - or even Goku and Yamcha - from the blast when it went off. Would she be able to knock it away if she hit it? Or would the impact immediately trigger the explosion? Even if it didn't, how far would it go before it exploded? Clearly the blast wouldn't be big enough to do damage to the puppet in the sky, but that said little about its width.

_Damn_...

She sprinted forward, and Goku collided with her on the Nimbus, sweeping her immediately off of her feet and into the air. It was a bit disconcerting to be carried in arms as short and small as Goku's, but it was at least an easy solution to the problem with the size of the explosion.

"Goku!" Bulma gave a pleased shout. "You're here!"

The voice from her chest made her immediately look down toward where Yamcha should have been with Goku. From the way that she'd impacted into his chest, that little rescue should have collided with Yamcha as well, possibly hurting him or...worse. But, when she looked where he should have been...nothing. Certainly not any sign of a small, injured man. And she trusted Goku enough to assume he didn't allow the man to accidentally go flying out at some point.

"Where's Yamcha?"

Goku looked over his shoulder as the Nimbus spiraled away from the falling bomb and started to arc back. "He's fighting the rest of the soldiers!"

Bulma gasped in horror. " _Back there_?"

She turned her attention up to the falling missile. In only a moment, maybe two, it'd contact with the roof. Almost certainly, it would then explode, and take most, if not all of the military base with it. And Yamcha. Especially if, somehow, he'd gotten himself anywhere near that main building while he fought those soldiers.

She grabbed her own passenger with as much care as she could, and placed her in Goku's hand. On the Nimbus both of them would probably be fine, considering the distance they already were. She vaulted over his shoulder, and took the two steps left of the cloud before she leaped into the air.

" _Sakura?!_ " The wind rushing by her ears nearly downed out the voice, but...she was fairly certain it had been Goku who shouted. Bulma would just have to be smart enough to keep him from doing what he did last time, and jumping after her.

The bomb. Would it go off if she hit it? Would it go off the moment it impacted the building? Either way, Goku and Bulma would be safe enough when it did. But if it _didn't_ go off just then, she still had a chance to knock it far enough away to protect everyone, including the one missing from the cloud. A chance was...better than no chance.

If it didn't, at least she'd tried. She couldn't just... _not_.

Air swirled around her as she plummeted down to the falling weapon. Her fist clenched, drew back, and then _crashed_ into the metal object. Metal twisted and creaked, and the object spiraled away from the base. And exploded.

Too close to where it would have landed anyway.

She lifted an arm protectively just before fire and light washed over her.

(*)

The force of the explosion sent the Nimbus cloud pinwheeling through the air, and then set it bouncing off of trees, fragments of buildings, and even the ground a few times. Considering the massive difference in size, the sound of the explosion shook every bone in her body, even as it was protected by the larger one between herself and it.

Unable to control the Nimbus, even Goku eventually crashed, and the violent spinning and tumbling sent her flying out of his shirt and onto the ground. If the ground weren't so worn down by the foot traffic of the army before, she'd probably have broken her neck or worse. Even as it was, when she stumbled up to her feet with all of her bruises, she felt sick and almost too dizzy to stand.

Fire and smoke mushroomed up into the sky where the Red Ribbon Army base had been, where Yamcha and the girl who'd tried to save him should have been, and she almost collapsed anyway.

"N-No... _no_!" She took a shaky step toward the smouldering remains of the base.

_Yamcha_...

She'd just been fighting with him not long ago. It was stupid. She'd fought with him for _stupid reasons_ , and they never officially made up.

She didn't thank him for helping her up that stupid tower instead of leaving her alone in that burned village for almost a week.

She didn't...

Hadn't even...

Fingers dug into her cheeks, raking down her face as if the pain could somehow wake her out of the nightmare she'd fallen into and let her start the day again.

The anguished scream that tore through the air didn't even sound like her own voice.

(*)

In retrospect, he'd gathered up _way too much_ treasure. 'Couldn't figure out what to do with it for the rest of his life' too much. Once he'd had some time to think about what to do with all of the valuables (because none of what he took was really just zenni sitting around waiting to be directly spent) he'd picked out a shiny looking gem and snuck into town to see how much it was worth.

The man behind the counter nearly suffered a heart attack.

He, too, almost suffered from one when the man insisted he didn't have enough money in the entire store to pay for the gem. It actually took a couple of days to find somewhere that actually _could_ pay for it...and once the excitement died down about it...he wasn't sure what to do with roughly _ten billion zenni_.

Boy didn't it keep him from trying, though. He bought himself the coolest looking house he could find, moved to the bigger island (when his old cranky master refused to move his dinky little house off somewhere into the sea so that there'd be room), and spent money on everything he could think of to spend it on.

Last count, he still had several hundred million zenni. And that was _one gem_. It was almost as daunting to be unbelievably rich as it was exciting to be _so well off_. He didn't have any worries, except 'how do I spend it', and _that was a surprisingly difficult conundrum_.

Of course, he was a truly worthy and clever man. He'd earned the money all on his own against the word of unbelievers, he could _definitely_ handle all that money. It was a difficult, grueling, dirty duty to have. He _was the man for the job_.

Although his master certainly seemed determined to help, given how often the man dropped by to ask for money to buy 'resources' and 'games' and...girl magazines. The last time he'd visited old Master Roshi, the old bedroom Sakura had used was stuffed full of magazines.

Really, though.

He sat down at his porch and crossed his arms, staring out at the horizon. Fabulous riches were a _much_ better thing to worry about all day than dragon's balls and stupid wishes.

Somewhere out there, Sakura was probably...

A chill breeze blew through the warm, sunny day, and he shivered in a sudden, inexplicable dread.

"What the...?" He frowned, and then shook his head.

Just...what was _that_ about...?

(*)

Everything...

Everything hurt.

Her body burned from the inside, as it slowly rebuilt the things damaged in the explosion, and the red hot metal around her sizzled against her skin when she moved. And there was _plenty_ of skin to burn. Fresh and new, her pink hair was soaked in her own blood, and red smeared and smudged across unmarred skin.

She gasped and choked in pain, dislodging dust from her throat. One hand lifted and pushed away a sheet of rock that collapsed on her. It had done its own damage...but it helped shield her from the blast somewhat, as well. Or, maybe that was all in her head. There was plenty of evidence around her to show how much damage she'd taken from that blast anyway.

She felt a bit woozy. Healing so much, so quickly, had been a significant drain on her reserves. If she hadn't most of a year to build them back up without the need to use much of it herself...the situation might have played out differently.

Around her, every building had been leveled. The portion of the fortress nearest to the bomb was missing entirely, along with a huge chunk of ground. Smoke filled the sky from fires that had died out by the time she'd regained consciousness.

Surprisingly, a few scraps of her clothing actually remained on the ground near her. There wasn't anything intact enough to even _attempt_ to wear, and that meant when she got her hands on the general, she'd _tear him apart_.

Except...

He wasn't there.

The sun had almost completely vanished in the sky, and he was gone, too. Either he'd left, or...Goku had dealt with him. Of course Goku dealt with him. Judging from the condition of the stone buildings (or what was left of them) around her, those two were far enough away to have survived just fine. He'd have done the job for her once he recovered from the shock of the explosion itself.

The further she walked, the steadier her steps became. The ground itself was uneven, split and cracked, covered in debris and ruins. Every once in a while, she could spot charred remnants of what had been soldiers not-quite hidden under the rubble.

She craned her neck slightly and scanned the skies for a sign of the Nimbus cloud. But...that was a silly thing to worry about. Goku and Bulma were fine. Certainly they were. She'd made sure of that by going after the explosive object on her own.

As for Yamcha...

Her gaze panned across the destruction.

If he survived...did they find him already? Could he be trapped somewhere still? Would she be able to find him on her own here before it was too late, or should she seek out Goku and see if they'd already found him first?

... _Ugh_.

Her head still felt rattled and her thoughts were jumbled up. That'd been a hell of an explosion.

_Okay. Focus_.

She closed her eyes for a moment, cleared her mind of all the jumble and mess, _focused_. After fighting the general...where would they have gone? After the remaining dragonballs. It had to be the remaining dragonballs. And Bulma said...to the East.

She gave a firm nod, and started...opposite the direction of the setting sun. The ground shifted, remains of a mighty fortress slid from precarious positions under her feet, and she summoned chakra to keep herself steady as she walked.

A quiet voice filtered through the haze of the smoke and approaching nightfall. "...Sakura?"

Her response was only delayed a moment, before she turned in the direction of the familiar voice. A few yards away from where she stood, having apparently just flown out from behind a pile of rubble taller than he was...Goku sat on the cloud, eyes wide with surprise. Or hope. Well, maybe he was pleased. It was a nice feeling to have someone happy she was alive, so she settled on that response for her own vanity's sake.

He jumped off of the cloud and sprinted across the debris, as if the cloud couldn't have gotten him across the distance faster. " _Sakura_!"

For the second time in the day, Goku crashed _right into_ her.

It didn't feel nearly as disconcerting that time.

Shame that she'd have to go and murder him for doing it when she was naked.


	54. Chapter 54

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If only she had some sort of sensory jutsu...she could look for the man and find him no matter where he was hidden. Or at least know immediately whether he was alive or dead.

Perhaps over the year she'd be stuck here after they made a wish for that small child's village, she'd become more accustomed to using capsules. They were...probably even more convenient than transport seals, other than only housing inanimate things. Bulma had almost immediately brought out one as soon as the other woman had spotted her, and provided replacement clothing. They weren't quite the same size, admittedly, but they were close enough that the clothing could actually fit _on_ her, and that was better than having nothing at all.

For some reason, the yellow tee shirt had Bulma's name printed across the front of it, and it was certainly loose in places it _wasn't_ on the other woman. And the skirt and shoes were not likewise printed with the other woman's name. Perhaps it was fashion. Perhaps it was a uniform of some sort that Bulma no longer had use for. It probably wasn't important. The loose nature of her shirt wouldn't probably come to anything: the battle was already over, so it wouldn't really get in the way. If she had the opportunity not to, she wasn't about to go walk around and do _anything_ without _some_ kind of clothing. She might have been a ninja, but she still had a sense of decency and common sense.

Clothing was...not even her chief concern, though.

Despite having had hours to look, neither of the other two had found Yamcha. Either he was still buried somewhere...or her attempt to save him was a complete waste of time.

Despite her speedy and helpful offering of clothing, Bulma said very little else. Her eyes were red rimmed, and her face drawn. It wasn't difficult to guess what Bulma thought was more likely between the two possibilities. And...it was for good reason.

She just refused to accept that reason.

She stared back in the direction of the ruined base. If only she had some sort of sensory jutsu...she could look for the man and find him no matter where he was hidden. Or at least know immediately whether he was alive or dead. She felt drained and tired, needed time to build back up her chakra again...but...shadow clones. She could search the area with shadow clones quickly enough to count. Before they wrote Yamcha off as dead...she wouldn't allow for the possibility of leaving him alone to die.

"We've been looking all over for both of you." Goku frowned as he stared toward the military base.

Of course, they hadn't found _her_ until she'd dug herself out, so that didn't mean Yamcha wasn't in there somewhere, unconscious and near death or trapped under rubble too heavy for him to move.

She could summon the chakra to heal him if she _needed_ to. If he were still alive. She still had plenty enough for that. A medical ninja always had plenty enough chakra to heal, if they needed to.

She took a step toward the base, and then looked over her shoulder. "That guy..."

Goku crossed his arms and shook his head, expression tightening in irritation. " _Of_ c _ourse_ I beat him!"

Right. She thought so. Which just...left...finding Yamcha. One way or another. Once they could do that, they could catch up with the one who ran away with the dragonballs. Before then, there was no way they'd be able to focus on anything else at all.

She sprinted off to the base, and as she jumped over the nearest wall, drew together her hands to summon shadow clones.

_Just wait a little longer_...

She made that request too often. Of Naruto, of Team 7, of everyone at home she'd wait another year before seeing. Of the people here.

This time...

This time for sure. He wouldn't be waiting in vain, or forever.

Otherwise, there wouldn't have been a point for any of it at all, would there? They could have escaped from the start, and none of it would have mattered anyway. It was all _too frustrating_ not to matter at all. She wouldn't stand for it. She absolutely wouldn't stand for it.

(*)

The day slipped into night, and the night into day. With more than one of her and even Goku, there was still so much to search through, so many false hopes, the search took a terribly long and difficult time. It could have taken forever. After all, nearest to the detonation point, very little of _anything_ remained. If Yamcha had been near to _that_ when it went off...

But they kept searching. Bulma stood at a distance in a portion of the fortress already cleared of debris, expression a conflict of hope and despair. Goku's expressions darkened, became more determined and grim the longer the search went. Not far away, back at the capsule house they'd left behind, Pu'ar still waited.

She refused to give up until she was sure.

She hefted several heavy chunks of debris away from an unusually tall pile of rubble. Underneath it...was a small metal box. It wasn't quite large enough to be a _room_ , but...maybe it could have been a closet, or a very large safe. At some point, it had a circular door, judging from the shape of the opening that she could see. Most of it had been blown away by the explosion. A rather large chunk of metal and stone had slammed its way through the opening and protruded out of one of the far walls of the safe. The circular door and the wall around it had been warped and crushed inward by the heavy stone that collapsed directly on top of the door, and the box itself had been uprooted and tossed onto its back by the blast. The debris that had rammed through the opening in the door obscured her view of whatever was inside the box, but from the angle...it was possible that there was still room in it not filled with debris.

_Maybe_...

She bit her lip, and gripped the protruding chunk of metal and stone. It could collapse into dust or metal fragments easily, if she simply pulled on it...so she took a further moment to run chakra through it and reinforce it. It wasn't a technique of hers that she was...particularly _good_ at, given that Tsunade didn't use elemental weapons like Asuma Sarutobi had, but even a little reinforcement would help. With a powerful tug and the painful screech of metal against metal, she ripped the chunk free, and opened up the metal room to the air.

Inside the small, dark box, Yamcha sprawled unconscious - certainly not worse, she had to assume not worse - across the wall that now rested on the ground.

She spared no hesitation at all to dispel her extra shadow clones and leap into the metal vault - as it clearly was, once she could see inside it - after him.

(*)

He regretted his decision approximately the moment he shut the large round door behind him. It really didn't cover as much of the vault as he'd have preferred it to, given that part of the door had been _blown away_ , and he didn't feel nearly as clever and safe as he'd wanted to.

He didn't have the time to change his mind, and certainly less time to find anything _better_ , though. And it did protect...most of him. Or so he hoped it would, anyway. He didn't have any kind of a plan b to survive. Which was...kind of stupid, in retrospect. But then again, it wasn't like he'd have had many ways to prepare ahead of time even if he'd thought to do it.

He'd only just been coming back from raiding the armory. It had, ultimately, proven to be as entirely useless as he'd started to worry about it being when he didn't immediately find it. Sure, he'd gotten a decent workout fighting the tiger person, and it helped him let off some steam and irritation which had built up. Despite that, all the time, effort, frustration, and...and _humiliation_ he'd suffered looking for the damn armory was pointless. He'd thought, the army just didn't _have_ any secret weapons, somehow. Apparently, he was wrong twice in a row: the Red Ribbon Army just happened to keep its secret deadly weapon somewhere else entirely.

He heard all the screaming first, and could see some of the conflict just by looking out a window. He'd already been on his way back to Goku, but if it was necessary, he'd just jump through the window and bring the two others back up. It wasn't as if he had anything _better_ to be doing than helping out the girls with their part of the mission, after all.

When Sakura punched the bomb, maybe his response was entirely paranoid. But then, the vault that the female soldier looted was _right behind_ him by the time he'd stopped to look at the fight. The smartest thing was to get to that vault before it exploded. And punching bombs that were already armed _tended_ to make them explode.

Ultimately, though, the shock waves and impacts of the rolling and sliding vault didn't _feel_ particularly smart at all. Nor did it seem like the safest place he could be when a huge portion of one of the nearby buildings flew... _way too quickly_ through the open section of the door. It nearly took off his arm when it slammed through the unsecured door, and...honestly, he wondered to himself whether he'd have been better off just trying to survive without the vault at all, considering the woman had already ruined all the security it could give.

He hadn't been certain how hard he hit his head when the impact of the ground slammed him into the back of the vault and knocked him unconscious, but he was almost certain the answer was _way too hard_ when he opened up his eyes to see Sakura dressed...like _Bulma_. In one of Bulma's own shirts, even! Not just a similar copy of some sort, the _actual_ thing! It had her _name_ on it. It was definitely hers.

Which was the weirdest damn thing he'd seen all week, fat cat with a stick included.

It took a good few smacks of his cheeks, and a strongly worded threat by the pink haired one to make him accept he (probably) wasn't hallucinating anything so actively. Or dead. Or asleep. His face hurt too much for any of the above.

What _was it_ with getting hit in the face today?

He batted at her hands. "Hey, hey! I'm here already!"

Sakura frowned down at him for a moment more, and then smacked him over the head hard enough that his vision blurred for a few moments.

" _Ow_! I told you I'm awake!"

"She hit me, too..." Goku peered over the edge of the vault, lips pursed. After a moment, though, he jumped down to join the other two, expression brightening. "You're okay!"

'Okay' was maybe an overstatement. He felt pretty rattled, sore, and...sore. Very sore. At least nothing was _broken._ Or missing. He rubbed at his head, and winced slightly at the tender lump he found at the back of it. "I'm _alive_ at least. What _was_ that, anyway?"

"That general was a sore loser." Goku sniffed, and made a sour face. "He blew up the whole place."

"But you guys were okay." He gave a small laugh. Really, they'd have already been off to find the last dragonball if he'd just stayed on the Nimbus cloud and done nothing. He wouldn't have a sore head or face, either. It wasn't as if he did anything _useful_ on the ground, other than get himself punched around by all the women he encountered between leaving the Nimbus and now. "Guess I should have stuck with you, huh?"

Goku shook his head quickly. "No way! You helped beat up all the soldiers! Otherwise they'd have all gotten away."

Sakura huffed and shook her head. "I think your girlfriend will have something else to say about that. Are you sure you're okay?"

He winced again, feeling a sudden chill of dread run through him at her words. "...I get the feeling I'm not going to be for long."


	55. Chapter 55

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bulma had more than a few things to say to Yamcha. She also had a few slaps to deliver before she finally burst into tears and clung to the poor rattled man. Pu'ar had a loud scolding for all of them. At least they weren't all smacked. She'd healed up enough today, extra injuries would just be unfair.

Bulma had more than a _few_ things to say to Yamcha. She also had a few slaps to deliver before she finally burst into tears and clung to the poor rattled man. Pu'ar had a loud scolding for _all of them_. At least they weren't all smacked. She'd healed up enough today, extra injuries would just be unfair.

The day had been too long for all of them. Somewhere out there, the red haired soldier - last known remnant of the Red Ribbon Army - would be escaping with the three dragonballs. But...they had the radar, and he wouldn't be able to outrun the Nimbus cloud for very long even with a negligibly longer head start.

This time, she made no attempt to stay up the rest of the day and night while the others rested. She still found herself staring up at the ceiling of the bedroom for a while, though. Somehow, they'd managed to escape that situation without any real and lasting injuries. No one died, and Yamcha had only sprained something. But she'd had to burn through so much reserve chakra, and...over some cheap trick.

Honestly, she'd thought she'd started taking things more seriously. It would be easy to blame the fact that she had Bulma with her, or that she'd had to go back for Yamcha...but...was it really true?

She ran her hands over her face and sighed. If she hadn't held back, the man would never have survived long enough to try to deploy his weapon, and then nothing would have gone wrong. She didn't even need to attack with her full strength. Worrying about how it _looked_...when a civilian went onto the battlefield, it was expected they would see terrible things. Worrying about what they might see could get them, and everyone else, killed. She knew that. It wasn't an excuse.

Could it be she'd been distracted? Thinking about the year ahead of her, whether to wait or to expect the small child to wait?

She knew better than to let thoughts about...anything, but especially the _future_ distract her in battle, but...maybe she had been.

Goku flopped down next to her, and after a moment gave her a suspicious look. "...You're not gonna hit me for sleeping next to you, are you?"

She frowned up at him. "I told you. It was your fault for grabbing a girl while she wasn't properly dressed. I didn't do it for no reason!"

He huffed, still bristling a bit, but laid down next to her anyway after a few more moments of sulking.

He was quiet long enough she almost thought he'd fallen asleep.

"There were multiple of you."

She blinked, and glanced over at him, where his face turned up to watch her with curiosity. "Um...while we were looking for Yamcha?"

He nodded. "How'd you have so many of you?"

"It's...a technique."

"With that thing you do?" He made a face and huffed. "I wanna do it, too."

She frowned slightly, and turned her attention back to the ceiling. If she'd be here for a year...maybe...

Well, he wouldn't be able to do very much with it. Developing and strengthening a chakra network took _years_ , not part of one. She certainly wouldn't be able to teach him anything complicated. But...maybe it would be something to do. Something that would keep her connected to home while she waited.

"Well..." She bit her lip. "I could. But...first, you have to get the bell."

He brightened then, as if he hadn't been sulking at all. "Okay then! Next time I'm gonna get it for sure!"

(*)

"I just don't _get_ it." Bulma tugged at her hair in frustration and sat back in the seat.

"Isn't it broken?" Goku frowned and leaned over the table at the device in her hand.

"No! Look..." She leaned forward and pointed at the curved green screen. "See, here are our three. Earlier, I saw the other three dragonballs heading away from us, and now they're not here at all. No matter what distance."

"Are you sure?" Yamcha crossed his arms, looking down at it. "That explosion was pretty bad, and you guys got caught in the tail end of it, right? What if something got damaged in it?"

"It isn't though, that's what I'm saying." She huffed. "It's a little damaged on the outside, but there's nothing broken or damaged that would have any kind of effect on the inside!"

Sakura...didn't really know much about the radar thing at all. Goku knew more than her about it, probably, and he looked just as stumped as everyone else. Bulma, who'd repaired it before, was confused. That was...strange. "Can we get another?"

"No, I-" She trailed off suddenly, eyes widening a moment. "...I...left a spare one with Krillin."

"With Krillin?" Yamcha blinked, straightening slightly. "When did you do that?"

"When we got back from the pirate cove, I'd been carrying an extra one in case, and I thought it would be better if someone else had it instead, in case I lost this one. But then he backed out of coming with to the next one..."

"So if we go see Krillin, he can get us the other one!" Goku beamed in excitement. "Let's go then! Maybe he'll agree to come with this time?"

She spoke before either of the other two in the room could. "He wouldn't be able to ride the cloud, would he?" She was fairly certain he'd said multiple times before that he couldn't. She was also fairly certain he'd still have no interest in traveling with them on their quest. But...maybe he'd change his mind if it was about something he actually cared about.

"Well...there _are_ three of those watches." Yamcha shrugged. "If we could get that prototype away from Muten Roshi, Krillin could use that one."

Bulma glanced between all of them, lips pursed in distaste. "...Well, if there's a chance we can get that watch back from that dumb _pervert_...it's at least worth trying. If not, then we'll have to go back home and I can build a completely new one instead. But it'll take longer."

"That's okay!" Goku thumped his chest. "As long as I have these dragonballs, it doesn't matter where the other ones are! The Red Ribbon Army still won't be able to get any wishes!"

"At this point..." Yamcha shook his head, lips quirking into a small smile. "From what I've heard, it's not the Red Ribbon Army anymore, it's the Red Ribbon _Soldier_."

(*)

He frowned up at the group in front of him. If he frowned hard enough, maybe they'd disappear again. Because he sure didn't miss them. He stopped missing them about the moment they appeared. They were loud, demanding, and for some reason he couldn't figure out, Sakura was wearing a shirt that said ' _Bulma'_ on it.

Why?

What was Goku saying about _cats?_

_They fought the Red Ribbon Army?!_

"How did searching for the dragonballs require you to fight a _whole army_?" He was trying to ignore them out of existence, but that just...slipped out.

The tall guy, Yamcha, answered first. "A whole army had the dragonballs and didn't agree to hand them over when we asked nicely."

Sakura, who hung back the furthest in the group, gave a small shrug. "We didn't ever ask them."

" _They wouldn't have agreed so it doesn't matter_!"

...Honestly, he regretted even less not going with them now than before. And he only _kind of_ regretted not going when he started to get bored. So there.

"The point is, in the middle of the chaos, someone ran away with the dragonballs we were trying to get, and now my radar isn't functioning right." Bulma held out a hand toward him. As if he, for some crazy reason, were _carrying_ the thing on him right then. "Give me back the one I lent you."

"I remember you saying you were _giving_ it to me."

"I thought you were coming with us!"

He scoffed. Honestly, that just proved the woman hadn't paid any attention to him at all. He'd definitely never said or done anything to indicate he'd be going along with the crazy team of...crazies, except to look for treasure. Which he found. Despite all of their doubts.

"Okay...say that I still had the thing with me..." He did. _Somewhere_. He didn't go out of his way to throw it away, anyway. "Why would I go and give it to you? If you've got a whole army fighting you, then I'd be a target."

Well, not that he couldn't handle it. He was also just as awesome a martial artist as all of them. But they weren't even _considering_ that, were they? Self-absorbed jerks. _Wish_ absorbed jerks. That's what they were.

" _What_ army?" Yamcha looked _way_ too smug about himself, and Pu'ar - that cat thing - brightened somewhat, looking up at him.

"We destroyed the whole thing!" Goku grinned, puffing out his chest proudly. "A few people ran away, but we beat everyone else."

He stared blankly up at the group of people, processing Goku's words.

_Destroyed...the whole thing?_

"Y...you _what_?"

(*)

Krillin was somewhat more richly dressed than the last time she'd seen him. The colors in his clothes were vibrant, the fabric smooth looking and shimmery, and the hems crisp and precise. The style of clothing looked more like a formal civilian suit than the loose fitting clothes he usually wore. Undoubtedly, the difference was due to the treasure he'd recovered.

He looked at her with as much suspicion and confusion as he ever did. That, at least, seemed not to have changed.

The old man hadn't said much since they arrived, wandering off into the house when Krillin walked out to talk to them, but when Goku announced their defeat of the Red Ribbon Army, the old man reappeared, expression unexpectedly...surprised.

"You three defeated the Red Ribbon Army all by yourselves?"

"Excuse you, I was there, too!" Bulma huffed, and planted her hands on her hips. "We wouldn't have found the dragonballs in all that mess if I wasn't there!"

Krillin gave the woman a flat look. "I thought you said you lost them?"

" _After the bomb went off_?"

"The _bomb_?" The old man cut in again, more alarmed than before.

"We're getting off the subject." She waved her hand. The less they focused on...that...the better.

"So..." Krillin frowned and looked between each of them with a certain sense of nervousness in his expression. "You guys beat the Red Ribbon Army?"

Yamcha nodded. "That's what we said."

"The three of you are stronger than I expected." Roshi huffed. "Goku particularly. Your strength has grown quite quickly."

Krillin glanced back at the older man. "...More than at the tournament?"

"Well, I got lots of training!" Goku beamed. "We found this huge tower and climbed it, and up top was a cat named Korin!"

"Korin...?" The old man blinked.

"Yeah! We stayed up there until we got the water!"

"All of you?" The old man's mouth formed a line, as he looked over each of them.

He shook his head. "Sakura didn't want to."

"What water are you talking about?" Krillin shook his head quickly, annoyance and confusion flickering across his face. "What _cat_?"

The old man settled his hands over his cane, and he turned his attention to the smaller one. "Weren't you raised in a monastery? You weren't taught about Korin?"

Krillin's expression drooped slightly, and he shuffled his feet. "Yeah...well, they didn't teach a _lotta_ things."

"It's a tall tower and on the top is an annoying old cat who will fight you for special water." Those people from that tournament were people he knew in the past. Considering his age, they came from the same place he was referring to. It seemed better to just get it over with than dwell on the subject any longer.

"Ordinarily, the process takes _years_. To think you got it in only days..." The old man shook his head and wandered back into the house, muttering about being left behind.

Krillin was quiet for a few moments, crossing his arms and staring down at the ground. In fact, he didn't say anything at all until someone finally spoke again. Bulma, sounding very impatient.

"Now that we're caught up, will you just _give me the radar_?"

He stayed quiet and unmoving for a few more moments, until Bulma started forward toward him, radiating irritation.

"Okay, okay. I'll go find it for you." He took a step back, giving Bulma a wary look, before continuing. "But in exchange, I'm gonna go with you for the rest of the way."


	56. Chapter 56

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "There's an old fortune teller known as the All-Seeing Crone. She'd be able to tell you where all of them were if you went to see her.

The five of them looked between each other in silence for a few moments, as if he'd given them some sort of cryptic response they had to puzzle out. Which was annoying, since they were the ones who'd insisted on him coming with before.

Goku scrunched his nose. "But you won't fit on the Nimbus cloud."

Was _that_ the whole concern? Weren't they going to try to make him come along before? Why was it different just because he wanted to come along this time?

He huffed and dug around in his pocket for the capsule he needed. "Lucky me I don't have to ride that crazy thing, then."

A moment later, he found it, and tossed it a little distance away. It was a _pretty sweet_ four-seat heliplane he'd picked up around the same time he'd bought his new house. Generally he used that to get supplies the bigger island didn't have, rather than use the cramped submarine his Master Roshi had.

After a moment of staring at the vehicle, Yamcha was the first to speak. "...Well, it's fine with me if you want to come with."

(*)

Bulma groaned in frustration. "This makes no _sense_."

It was the second time she'd said that, and with increased intensity. From experience, it probably meant the extra dragonballs still weren't showing up.

"It's still not working?" She looked over the other woman's shoulder with a frown. Just as the other radar showed, their three were together, and the others simply weren't present at all. "Could they have been destroyed in the blast?"

"I...no! No, I don't think so." Bulma sighed and shook her head. "Plus, the last one isn't showing, either."

Ultimately, Krillin had left the radar under the table in the living room of Kame house, so it hadn't taken long to actually find it. Bulma had since taken it apart and put it back together entirely on the table, to no effect.

"Is there any reason they wouldn't show up?" Yamcha wandered over to lean over her other shoulder, and the woman irritably swatted him away until he took a step back.

"Could it be in space?" Pu'ar asked, hovering up over Yamcha's shoulder. "He was running away, wasn't he?"

"Okay, _first_ , there's no way he went up into space. Second, even if he did...this should still show the last one in that case."

"It used to show all seven!" Goku sat at the opposite end of the table, next to Krillin and the old man, watching Bulma work with curiosity.

"Well...maybe if something swallowed it." She huffed and blew strands of hair out of her face. "But there's no way they'd _all_ get eaten at the same time. Probably..."

"Is there any other way to find them?" They were _meant_ to be found, weren't they? Surely there was a method of locating them without having a device point them out. Even if she didn't know how, the others must have, given they were familiar with the process.

"Well..." Bulma sat back slightly and sighed. "We can search every little part of the world, but that would take years."

"If something's eaten it, it'll come back out eventually." Krillin drummed his fingers on the table. "You could just wait and get it that way."

" _Gross_!"

"Hmm..." The old man, who had been quiet since the discussion of the Red Ribbon Army, spoke again. "There's an old fortune teller known as the _All-Seeing Crone_. She'd be able to tell you where all of them were if you went to see her."

_All-seeing crone_?

Could it be some sort of Byakugan user? The mark on the man's head had been nothing but a tattoo, but...perhaps...it was worth looking, at least. "Where is this person?"

"I have a map to her palace..." He turned and began rifling through papers stuffed in the corner of the room. "You can use it to find your way there."

Yamcha scoffed lightly. "Somehow I expected you to know where she was yourself, the way you talked about her."

"I do, but I'm too old to go on quests for answers." The old man pulled out a rolled up scroll and set it on the table. "Here. Just follow it from where we're at and it will lead you straight to her palace."

(*)

Honestly, he was pretty relieved just to have the opportunity not to need to ride in Goku's shirt. It was kind of weird and novel when he'd first started doing it, but it got stifling and pretty gross eventually. He was tempted to take a break and get the kid new clothes...except there were four missing dragonballs, and pretty high stakes behind getting that wish.

Assuming that a wish _really could_ be used to bring the dead back to life. If it could...

"Do you wonder what the limits of that dragon are?"

"Not really." Krillin sounded about as grumpy as he had since Bulma demanded they use the plane as well.

"No, but...think about it." He waved his hand through the air, before settling it back on the controls. "If we could bring back the dead. How far back does that reach? Could...say...what about his grandfather?"

She frowned slightly, pursing her lips. "You want to do this two more times?"

Not particularly. He was over dragonball hunts _before_ he helped with this one. But...would it be right to refuse to help?

Besides that...

He shook his head quickly. Worrying about the upper limits of the dragonballs wasn't really important until they could actually _find_ all seven again.

"Hey...why are you here, anyway?" Krillin leaned forward slightly to direct his question toward Bulma. "It could be dangerous, and we've already got the radar, right? Is it just that you forgot to pack a vehicle capsule again?"

" _No it isn't_!" For some reason, after glaring at Krillin, she looked at _him_ for a moment or two, as if he had some kind of answer for her motivations. Eventually, she crossed her arms and huffed, looking away from both of them. "It doesn't matter anyway! I just _am_ here. Deal with it!"

(*)

The map led to a desert nearly as hot as she remembered Suna to be, and to a sprawling round building next to a lake.

"Ugh." Bulma shielded her eyes against the glare of the sand around them. "If I knew it was gonna be in a _desert_ I'd have brought sun screen."

Krillin tossed his jacket into the plane and rolled up the silk white sleeves of his shirt with an unpleasant looking frown. "I'd have changed..."

A small group of people stood in a line outside the front of the building just a short distance from where they stood. "How did they know where to find her?" After all, there didn't seem to be any kind of path leading to the 'palace', nor had she seen any indicators on their way to show travelers where to go.

Goku glanced up at her when she spoke and then looked to the building again with a shrug. "Maybe there's lots of maps."

A tiny straw hat floated on a puff of smoke in their direction.

And spoke.

"Hello! Hello!" Bulma gave a startled yelp, but it spoke as if she made no sound at all. "The line starts right here! There are six of you?"

"Um..." Yamcha glanced across them, and then squinted down at the talking hat. "Yeah, I guess..."

"This is the Crone's place?" Goku asked, staring up at the hat.

Closer, there seemed to be slightly more solidity to the smoke under the hat than she'd originally thought. It obscured the people standing ahead of them somewhat, and if she focused on it (and not the hat) she could make out facial features. "Please refer to her as the great fortune teller Baba!"

He made a face. "But that's too long."

The wisp of smoke didn't wait to continue to speak to him, though, and simply floated back toward the group of three ahead of them. "Next! Next to see the great fortune teller!"

"Yeah!" Someone ahead of them shouted.

"Let's do this!" A female with them cried, pumping her fist into the air before they walked into the building.

It was a bit...loud, for people about to ask for their fortune.

"Does any of this seem strange to the rest of you?" Pu'ar asked, floating up next to the rest of them.

"Is there anything about this that _isn't_ strange?" Krillin frowned up at the cat, before crossing his arms. "If the old crone is gonna make us wait _and_ live out in a desert, she could at least let us do it inside."

"I get the feeling that's part of the reason she lives in the desert." Yamcha gave a slight shrug. "Or...she's just not a nice person. Could be that, too."

Goku looked up at her with an impatient frown. "Can't we just go in? I wanna know where the dragonballs are."

"Breaking her rules isn't going to make her more willing to give us answers." Besides, if the woman had the Byakugan, making them stand alone outside where it looked as if no one could see them was probably part of it. As Yamcha said.

Or...nothing really made any sense about her yet. Why would there be other people already going to ask questions on the same day they did? In the middle of a deep desert without any sign of how to arrive there? The building didn't seem to be set up to deal with a high rush of people, and yet...the weird little wisp didn't seem to act as if having so many people present at once was unusual at all.

In the distance, she could just make out raised voices.

"Hey, do you guys hear that?" Yamcha glanced over at the rest of them. "I can't make it out, but..."

"I don't hear anything." Bulma squinted up at him. "Are you hallucinating? It's really hot out..."

"Nu uh!" Goku shook his head. "I hear it too!"

"No _way_!" Someone shrieked from inside the building, and then one of the three who entered sprinted out, looking wildly over their shoulder.

That wasn't a particularly _good_ sign.

Nor was the woman who limped out of the building, carrying the last competitor in her arms, looking too pale to be healthy.

"You two..." She took a step toward them immediately, raising her hands to heal them.

The both jumped back away from her, eyes wide. "What are you _doing_ here?! Get out of here!"

"Now now, don't terrorize the other guests!" The wisp appeared from the doorway again. "You can always try again next time. Come, the fortune teller will see you now."

Yamcha stared over at the two who stumbled away from them. "What...what the hell happened to them?"

The wisp gave a high laugh, and then started into the building. "Inside after me, please!"

She glanced over at Yamcha, and then to Goku. The first looked nervous, and the second still impatient. Pu'ar hung behind Yamcha's shoulder, gripping the torn fabric there. Maybe it shouldn't have been a surprise that the 'fortune teller' that they were sent to see would be just another dangerous thing they'd have to overcome first.

Every other dragonball they'd gone looking for seemed to do that.

She clenched her hand, and then started into the building.

The first building was small and empty, and simply led into a long path into another building. Beyond that...a small old woman crouched on a crystalline ball, hovering in the air. Other than the dim lighting in the building caused by the flickering candles...nothing seemed particularly sinister about she or the room.

Which meant it was probably especially dangerous.

"Well...you're all quite the young ones, aren't you?" The woman gave an amused cackle.

"So..." Bulma spoke, sounding a little irritated still from their wait in the desert. "Are you the one called the All Seeing Crone, or are you just another person here to make us wait?"

"I am the great Fortune Teller Baba." The woman's gaze swept across each of them. "Such a large party of you...must have come to me for a great reason."

"Yeah!" Goku nodded. "We came to ask you to find something!"

"Is that all?" The woman's gaze turned to her, then. "After all...I can show you _anything_. Anywhere."

"Well...we need four things!" Goku held up four fingers toward the old woman. "Four dragonballs!"

"Dragonballs...hmph." The old woman huffed and shook her head, radiating disapproval. "What a waste. Very well then. Give me fourty million zenni."

Yamcha broke into a coughing fit. " _What_?"


	57. Chapter 57

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The path led out to what looked distinctly like the arena the tournament had been held in, surrounded by an offshoot of the nearby lake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forget if I ever mentioned, but while I've heard 'x Briefs' is technically fanon, it's easier to keep it that way. Also, in Dragonball Evolution she introduces herself with the last name. That works fine for me. (Also, what silliness is 'last names have gone out of style'? Girl. girl.)
> 
> "But will it be Videl Satan?" you may ask! First, that's like super long in the future from now and not relevant! But also no, that's a stage name. And as far as stage names go I like Hercule more, anyway. Do you want to see 'Videl Hercule'? No, no you don't. (Here I get into an argument with myself about theme names and fans paradoxically wanting to use 'Bulla' and 'Bills' despite this)

"No way! _Absolutely_ not!" Krillin shook his head ferociously. "There's no way I'll do it!"

Bulma clicked her tongue and glared down at him. "Well you said you wanted to come along and help, didn't you?"

" _I NEVER SAID THAT!_ "

"I _have_ other things to do." The old woman sighed, staring at the two. "If you're not ready to ask for my services, then you may return later. There are others waiting for me who _are_ ready."

"...We were the only ones out there." Yamcha squinted at the floating woman. He crossed his arms, and shook his head. "There's no one else around to be waiting."

"Ho? You think so?" The old woman cackled and waved her hand dismissively. "Well, if you can't decide, then you may leave and search for the dragonballs on your own. I don't have the patience to listen to the bickering of little children."

Bulma clenched her fist in frustration. "If... _ugh!_ If that's the case... _fine_. But _you!_ " She pointed back at Krillin with enough ferocity that the boy in question immediately shrank back slightly. "Are _walking_ back home!"

" _But it's my plane_!"

" _So I guess you can afford to pay for this, huh?!_ "

They'd already burned up most of the day just looking at the dragon radar and getting to the desert palace. Kame house had been conveniently close to the Red Ribbon base (almost worryingly so, in retrospect), but this palace had been quite a distance. If they put things off much longer, they wouldn't even be able to begin the search for the rest of the dragonballs until the next day. Whatever became of the dragonballs, they'd be that much more delayed in retrieving them before something worse happened with them. Or someone attempted to steal theirs while their guards were down.

And...come to think of it, the house that Bulma had given them originally would be even _more_ cramped accommodating Krillin. The less nights they needed to share it, the better. It would probably be best for everyone to avoid staying in it more than a few nights.

Thus, shifting the subject to anything else seemed better than allowing the argument to continue, whether or not the old woman actually _would_ leave them and make them wait on an imaginary line once they were finished arguing.

"Do you even have fourty million zenni on you?" That would be a surprising amount of money to carry around casually, after all.

Bulma blinked over at her, and then waved her hand. "Well...yeah, of course. I have my card."

"It's an extra thousand zenni fee for a card."

"Oh _come on_!" The woman stomped her foot in frustration and balled her fists at her sides. " _I'm giving you fourty million already_!"

The old woman lifted her nose to the ceiling and gave an airy sniff. "If you don't want to pay for my services, I won't force you to. A thousand is a perfectly reasonable fee for processing so much zenni with a card. All fortune tellers agree."

She frowned at the old woman. There were _other_ fortune tellers?

Bulma growled and muttered something that she couldn't make out, before forcibly withdrawing a white object from her pocket. " _Here_! You old _cheat_! I can't _believe_ I have to do this..."

The fortune teller floated closer to Bulma and grabbed the card with a pleased looking smile, before turning her back to them and floating away. "Thank you very much. Come along, and I shall show you the answers you desire."

The crone certainly didn't have the Byakugan. After all, she'd never heard of any variation of the all-seeing white eyes that could be disguised when not in use. She had also never heard of any method of using them which could be called 'showing' someone else. So, then...just what method did the crone use? And...how did it apply to the way the others were attacked?

The path led out to what looked _distinctly_ like the arena the tournament had been held in, surrounded by an offshoot of the nearby lake. Despite that, the old woman didn't spare a single word, or even a lingering glance, to any of it. Beyond that was a larger building, more enclosed than the previous ones. A spiral staircase stood ahead of them, set into a wall next to a large and strangely shaped skull.

"This way, if you will." The old woman floated off in a different direction from the staircase, curving around the center of the room and heading toward a door on the ground level. "There's too much distraction outside."

Yamcha frowned and glanced over at her, a silent question as to what might have been a distraction.

Questions and confusion aside, there...wasn't really any choice but to follow after the bizarre old woman wherever she went. She had, after all, taken away Bulma's money already. The room beyond the door was smaller than the large...lobby, and much darker, lit only by a small lantern on the other side of the room.

"Now...you wish to see four different dragonballs?"

Yamcha shrugged slightly. "One of them should be in a different place from the other three."

"Hm." The woman huffed. "If you'd told me there would only be two readings, I would have only charged you twenty."

" _You WHAT_?!"

Yamcha immediately jumped forward and grabbed his girlfriend's arms before she could charge the old woman and attack. Most likely attacking the fortune teller would lose Bulma the money and still not tell them where the dragonballs were.

"Silence, as I summon your fortune!"

The woman hopped down off of the floating ball and landed on the tile below with a soft thump. Sakura blinked, as she stared down at the woman. Even in the gloom, it was easy enough to make out the fortune teller's shortness. Originally she'd thought the woman was simply crouching...she was simply _very_ short. Perhaps shorter than the Tsuchikage. Bulma continued to growl and mutter indistinctly, but...as the woman made no further comment, it was apparently not loud enough to break her concentration.

The woman chanted something unfamiliar, and the floating ball began to glow. Slowly, the bright light began to fade into the orange color of sunset. In the very middle, a round shape floated, with other small circles connected to it. Against the color of the sky, it was difficult to make out...but it looked a bit like it was made of metal.

So it was...some sort of floating base? A remnant of the Red Ribbon Army they'd missed, that managed to hide the location of the dragonballs?

"What..." Bulma leaned in to stare at the ball, as Yamcha released her arms in favor of leaning forward as well. "What the hell is _that_?"

"It looks like some kind of flying...ship..." Yamcha's voice trailed off at the last part, floundering for and then failing to find a better term.

"The dragonballs are within that." The old woman said with a nod.

"And where is 'that'?" Krillin spoke up from where he'd stayed back next to the door.

She pointed over Goku's head. "In that direction. About three thousand miles from here. It doesn't appear to be moving very quickly."

"Three thousand...?" Goku frowned, making a half hearted attempt to count his fingers.

"It means it's going to take a whole day to get there, probably." Yamcha sighed, and rubbed his hand through his hair. "At least we know where it is, though."

"Yeah, but..." Krillin frowned. "What _is_ it?"

The crone turned her attention to him, as the image faded out of the crystal ball. "Well, I happen to know the answer to that, if you wish to know."

He frowned at her in annoyance. "Well, _okay_. What is it?"

"Ten million zenni."

"Oh, _forget it_!"

"It's not important!" Bulma crossed her arms and frowned in irritation. "We'll find out when we get there. I'm not paying for that. Just tell us where the other dragonball is."

"In the same place."

She blinked, and looked between her companions. "The same place?"

"Yes. I sensed each of their presence when I was looking at it. How lucky for all of you."

Bulma grit her teeth and Sakura just managed to catch the words 'not when you'.

"If we've got three thousand miles to go and they've got all of the other dragonballs, I guess we can't wait any longer than we have to." Yamcha shrugged and turned back toward the door. "Come on, I think we can at least get out of this desert before the sun goes down."

"We'd go faster if we just used the Nimbus..."

Krillin made an offended sound. "There's no way I'm getting on that thing! You're lucky I'm here at all!"

"Why _are_ you here?" Bulma snapped, rounding on him again. "You won't even pay for anything!"

She lingered in place a little longer, watching the crone. They were given the answer to the question of the dragonballs, but...that didn't explain why those ahead of them had been so roughed up and harmed. Had they attacked the old crone and she somehow defended herself against them? But she didn't seem to have the demeanor of someone who'd been recently attacked, no matter how handily she dealt with it.

And why were there a line of people for a fortune telling crone in the middle of the desert, when no one among them other than the old man himself had ever heard of her in the first place?

Now...wasn't the time for that. She wanted answers, but...Yamcha was right. If they couldn't find the dragonballs on the radar themselves, that flying fortress might disappear again, and their time and effort would have gone completely to waste. Later, after restoring that village...maybe she would return to figure out the answer to those other questions.

As she turned to leave, the old woman spoke again.

"Before you leave...are you completely certain you don't wish to have a look at your home?"

(*)

Unbelievable.

His friends had actually led him to believe the whole Red Ribbon Army was out of commission, so any training that they picked up while looking for the other four dragonballs wouldn't be _nearly_ as life threatening and crazy as the ones they did with an army actively fighting them.

Oh, but no! There was a whole _freakin' flying base_ left! And it had guns! _He'd seen giant guns on it_!

And, _and_. The spectacularly rich daughter of the president of Capsule Corporation tried to get _him_ to pay for the damn fortune? Sure, he could pay for it. It was...pretty cheap, compared to the kind of assets he had. But he was just one guy with treasure! It could run out some time! Surely _Bulma Briefs_ could handle it! She was just being cheap, and _damn it_ , he should have been the one being cheap! Rich people didn't get to be cheap!

...Well, maybe he was rich now, too...

"Hey..." Bulma stopped, patting her pockets. "Did you ever see her give me back my card?"

Yamcha glanced over at her. "What? No, I wasn't paying attention."

"She didn't." The cat thing said. Sounding a little bit smug, actually. "It's a common con, you know! Always keep track of your card."

" _If you saw it why didn't you say something?_ "

Goku frowned, pausing right in front of that golden cloud of his. "...Where did Sakura go?"

Wait.

Sakura?

Wasn't she just next to them?

He frowned and turned a slow circle. The pink haired menace wasn't...anywhere. Had she stayed in that building for some reason? Why would she even do that?

"I'm gonna go back for her!" Goku sprinted past them down the path, ignoring the alarmed objection to the wisp-y spirit creature that had been leading them back to their vehicle. Their vehicle and cloud.

...They probably had to follow him, didn't they?


	58. Chapter 58

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Did it really matter, looking at her home when she was still a year away from returning to it? Even if she wanted to see it again, would it do her any good to see and not to touch it? Did it matter to see what Naruto and Sasuke and the others were doing, had done in her absence? She couldn't affect it, after all.

She wasn't sure if she _meant_ to stop, but...she certainly did hesitate. It wasn't very long, but then she didn't get much of an opportunity to think about whether or not to stop and respond or not, before the old woman spoke again.

"It's been almost a year, hasn't it?" The old woman's voice crackled through the room over her shoulder. "So much has changed in a year for you. Much more may yet before you return."

She bit her lip. Did it really matter, looking at her home when she was still a year away from returning to it? Even if she wanted to see it again, would it do her any good to see and not to touch it? Did it matter to see what Naruto and Sasuke and the others were doing, had done in her absence? She couldn't affect it, after all.

Finally, she turned her head to look back toward the old crone. "Why would you offer at all?"

"I expected four fortunes and only delivered one. You have paid enough to ask to see something else, but I'm not about to keep it on credit to you. If you leave, you'll have to come back and pay full price again when you change your mind." The old woman cackled in private amusement. "You should feel lucky to be privy to a moment of rare generosity that I ask at all, instead of allowing you to leave on your own."

_When_ she changed her mind? Just what made the fortune teller so certain she _would_? After all...it would only be another year before she returned.

She frowned over at the old woman. "How would you even see it? My home isn't anywhere in this world."

"I _know_ where your home is, girl." The woman tutted. "You're not the only one who's traveled across dimensions."

There were _others_ who traveled dimensionally? Could this woman have...also been from...?

"I can't take you there, however. It will only be a vision. _And it can't communicate._ " The old woman hummed. "But the worries in your mind will be put to rest."

Finally, she turned away from the door, and took a step back toward the woman. "I'm not _worried_. Naruto and Sasuke...didn't need any more of my help." She'd have given it if she could. She would have liked to have the power to help more than just to enable others with the ability to help...but now...it was better for everyone that she wasn't needed after all.

As for what happened in the end, how the village reacted to Sasuke, what the others did once the threat was gone, though...

"And what of the worries and conflicts you struggle with over the wish, hm?" The old woman squinted up at her. "Being so close to finding the last of those pretty little orbs of yours, it would be a problem if you were conflicted over your goal."

She...wasn't _so_ conflicted. After all, she could have her wish as well. In a year...

"Lean close. From such a distance, the image won't be as clear as others."

As before, the woman began a quiet chant. The ball glowed brightly and pulsed with light as the woman continued. It went on longer than the last, and the faintest edges of an image would barely begin to focus before scattering again. The woman's wrinkled forehead piled up to the middle of her face in concentration, as if the process took much more concentration than the other.

Shapes solidified in the crystalline surface, and color gradually washed onto the scene. 'Home' was a vague term, but as it began to focus, it was clearly the village Konoha. The image panned up through the buildings, until it focused on the five carved faces in the cliffside.

At the very edges of the image, something partially blocked the view of the village. The tip of an unfamiliar tree twisted into view and partially obstructed the Hokage hillside.

A moment later, the image distorted and vanished, plunging the room back into gloom.

"What...? What was that?"

The old woman frowned. "Strange, is what it is. It's taking more of my power than it should." The ball lit once more, and the image flickered in and out of view. When she could glimpse it, she could see a tree that didn't belong, but the image refused to stay in focus long enough to stay there.

"What's wrong with it?"

"Hmm..." The old woman's brows knit, and the image faded into another. "There might have been something interfering with it in the village. I've never encountered anything that would, but...dimension viewing is a difficult business."

Slowly, the image faded into view again. A hillside, what might have once been a battlefield of some sort, now overgrown. Twisting all across the land and over the hills were giant roots of some sort. Or...perhaps they were branches. They wound around the ground and bridged gaps in small hills, but never appeared to dip underground.

On nearer branches, she could see white cocoons hanging from the bottom side of them, swaying slightly in the wind that blew through the hillside.

"...No..."

That...couldn't be. It looked...like the jutsu that Madara had placed the rest of the world under shortly before Kaguya arrived, but...but it _couldn't be_ , because it had been almost a year. Surely Naruto and Sasuke, Kakashi as well, would have found some kind of way to undo it by _now_. The world couldn't still be trapped in it!

Unless...maybe...they could free people, but only nearby them, and this was simply a portion of the world they had yet to find? The Shinobi world was huge, and if the process of freeing victims took time, then it wouldn't be completely impossible to see some remnants still, in less than a year. If they were to just look at Naruto and Sasuke, they'd see the world as it was supposed to be.

"This isn't..." She shook her head. "N...Naruto and Sasuke. Just show me them."

The woman was quiet a few moments, perhaps searching for them with whatever method she used to find anything else, and then shook her head. "They're not present in the world."

They...

The couldn't have been traveling dimensions. They couldn't be. She bit her lip, staring at the image. Maybe, like with Konoha, there was interference where they happened to be in the world. Because she couldn't imagine they would have gone looking for her, particularly for so long, without first rescuing the rest of the world. She wasn't that important. They wouldn't have known she was alive, anyway.

"They have to be _somewhere_."

The woman drew in a breath. "I have found something. I believe...it may be them. Yes."

She chanted something, and again the image vanished into a white glow. The familiar voice of Naruto was the first thing to filter through the room, even before image.

"- _ke you gotta focus_! _"_

A vision of the snowy plain she remembered from almost a year before shimmered into view, and her two teammates stood near each other, backs to her. In the distance, Kaguya floated in the air, even more sinister and imposing than she remembered her.

Sasuke made a sound like a scoff. "I don't need you to tell me that. Just don't miss next time."

" _Damn it_ , Sasuke, _I'm_ not the one _who-_ "

"Enough, both of you." Kakashi's voice drifted from somewhere out of frame.

"I don't understand..." She shook her head, and reached out toward the image, barely conscious of the fact that she was. It looked like something that could have happened only a short time from when she should have returned with Sasuke. The battle couldn't have _actually_ gone on so long...

"This isn't in the present." The old woman shook her head. "But it's what I could find."

The voices of the others filled the silence again. Three shadow clones collapsed in the snow, and Sasuke narrowly dodged one of the rods that shot from Kaguya's sleeves.

"Be careful!" Kakashi urged. "If you let yourself be distracted, she'll kill you in an instant!"

The strange things that floated behind Naruto's back sped toward the pale woman, guided by what appeared to be his will alone. The woman flew left and right, led in an intricate path that they must have discussed moments earlier. The last appeared to catch the bottom of her dress, and she collapsed onto the ground.

A moment later, Sasuke leaped into view from...somewhere.

"Sasuke-!" She shouted without even realizing it, as Kaguya spun with inhuman speed and ran through him with a rod. It...dispelled. As only a clone.

Naruto exploded from the snowy ground, uppercutting Kaguya in the jaw and knocking her backward. Behind her, Sasuke appeared. The plan, obviously, must have been to distract her and get her into a weakened position without realizing the real threat, and then seal her. Of course. Together, the two of them always made genius plans.

It was exactly as she expected to see. Once they were ready to work together, they'd find a way to defeat her, because they were the only ones equipped to _do it_.

The angle of where the image...vision...was placed obscured most of the movements, but for a moment dull surprise flickered across Sasuke's expression.

A gust of wind kicked up a flurry of snow, and he vanished.

Her hands, trembling with worry and anticipation, abruptly stilled.

"S... _Sasuke_!" Naruto screamed. Golden chakra flared up all around him and he threw himself toward the woman in a rage. The battle lasted only a short time: he pummeled her, screamed in fury, and withstood four of those horrible attacks before he finally collapsed.

At some point, the room might have darkened again. At some point, the wind vanished and the silence that consumed everything in the world also filled the room she stood in. She couldn't tell when that was. She wasn't sure that she cared.

Her hands shook again. Her arms. Her legs. She couldn't tell if her legs were supporting her anymore, but they must not have been, because her fingers dug into the ground beneath her. Hot tears burned the backs of her hands, ran down her cheeks, blurred out her vision so that the only thing she could see were her friends and teammates...

Gone.

She didn't make a sound.

(*)

He hadn't thought much initially when she wasn't walking with them. She'd seemed just as concerned about those who ran away from the building as he had been, if she couldn't resist the urge to question the old crone on the matter...it might have made her lag behind. Or, perhaps, she might have gone exploring into the rest of the building.

Honestly, he didn't even notice immediately she _wasn't_ there. He'd been thinking about that base, about who else might have had the ability to collect so many dragonballs and also have such a _flying base_ to use, and whether it was a branch of the Red Ribbon Army they'd missed.

Mostly, the only reason he followed after Goku was to make sure if the kid did manage to find some kind of trouble they avoided, he'd be there too. That's why he'd come along, after all. Well-the training he got coming along for the trouble, and the adventure involved with it wasn't bad, either.

Krillin, Goku, and himself were apparently the only ones who were dumb enough to go running back into the building when someone out there had a way to hide dragonballs and a moving base. It wasn't a difficult path to remember, either, and so they burst into the door rather quickly after they actually started back toward it.

The old crone floated on the crystal ball, looking down at Sakura with an expression something like _pity_. Sakura...sat on her knees, staring down at the ground in silence. Not moving, not speaking.

Could...could it be that somehow the old crone-?

Goku ran up to her in alarm and shook her shoulder. "Sakura!"

"Wha..." Krillin spluttered to his right, voice higher than usual. And...almost offended " _What did you do_?"

"I don't appreciate the implication that I did any harm." The old woman harrumphed and floated away from them. "I showed her what she needed to see."

What she 'needed' to see? What...in the world could someone see to cause a reaction like _that_?

She wasn't catatonic, apparently. When Goku shook her out of her daze, she immediately pressed her hand to her mouth, as if she could muffle a sob in such a quiet and enclosed room.

"What...uh..." He grimaced, uncomfortable. Even when he understood the reason why, he...he wasn't at his most comfortable and experienced when dealing with distraught women. "What was it that...you saw?"

"Yeah..." Krillin took a step closer, expression still concerned. "What happened?"

"M-My..." She trailed off and then pressed her hands to her thighs, visibly reining in the emotions that had overcome her. She shook her head, movements slow and too deliberate. "They're... _gone_."


	59. Chapter 59

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the three words she'd said in the room, she didn't say anything else.

She didn't say _anything_.

After the three words she'd said in the room, she didn't say anything else. She _walked_ perfectly fine, stood up and left the room quicker than any of them when the old crone dismissed them, but she said nothing else. Goku chattered, Bulma asked questions, and she still didn't say anything. She didn't even pointedly ignore them, didn't go out of her way to avoid answering or looking at them, or addressing them. She just didn't say anything, and eventually they stopped.

Well, Bulma stopped. Goku...got quiet, and then started talking to someone else. But that was _basically_ the same thing. He didn't even _try_ talking to her. It wasn't like she made a great habit of listening to him _normally_. If she wouldn't answer Goku, talking to her would have been a waste of his breath.

She didn't look at anyone, either. She just...walked, got onto the Nimbus cloud thing, and then...stared at her hands. She didn't even have an expression. She didn't look sad, she didn't frown. Her eyes were red, but she didn't seem to be actively crying. She didn't even look...surprised? Distraught? She didn't look like she had any kind of strong emotion at _all_. If he didn't know her better, she would have looked...about normal. For a quiet person.

It creeped him out.

It worried him more than he wanted it to.

That...that kind of _pissed him off_. What the hell was 'gone'? What was it of hers that she could have lost that the old crone could 'show' her? Why did she _need_ to know it? How did the old woman even know what people needed to know and not, anyway, if she went and asked _them_ what they wanted? Why was it so _important_? If it was broken, couldn't she just wish it back or something? Weren't dragonballs designed _specifically for_ that kind of thing?

She wasn't the kind of person to react badly to a crush that could never be, right? She...wasn't even the kind of person to _get_ those kind of feelings, probably. She wouldn't have gone asking about it even if she were, would she? Or _was_ it something that could be?

Ugh...he couldn't even keep up with his own head about what it could be anymore.

Why didn't she just _explain herself_?

Why...

Why did she look so... _blank_? She never looked _blank_. Blank wasn't _neutral_!

He rubbed his face in his hands and sat back in the plane with an aggrieved sigh. "I don't know what the heck her problem is." Seriously, he'd been wasting way too much time on thinking about _her_ problem. _They_ still had to get those stupid wishing orb things, fight off a bigger orb with _guns on it_ , and...do whatever it was they were supposed to be doing with them. Bring the sour woman back to whatever place she came from, or find her country while looking.

Yamcha, who still sat in the pilot seat despite _not being the one who bought it_ , shook his head. "I'm not sure...but I think it's a safe guess to say it's something about her home."

"Her home?" He frowned. But...what did 'they' have anything to do with her home or going there? She'd always been pretty _vague_ about where she supposedly came from, so he couldn't think of anything specific that might mean...them. They. Did the letter make a difference? How did that have anything to do with that damn fortune teller when Sakura didn't even have the money to make that kind of a purchase? Did she? Had Bulma Briefs given her a small fortune just for living with her for that one month? That seemed much less harrowing an adventure for money.

He groaned in frustration and shook his head, dismissing the whole...train of thought. It was already getting derailed completely, and that didn't help him with _anything_.

_Whatever_. Worrying over that girl...he almost suspected she was just doing some sort of crazy antics to irritate him. It was marginally less frustrating to think that. Even if he didn't believe it.

"She'll talk about it eventually." Bulma nodded. Also sitting up front. _Also_ not an official owner of the vehicle. "There's no use prying until she's ready, though. It will only make it take longer."

He harrumphed. That didn't help him at all right _then_ , did it?

"These are the last dragonballs aren't they?" He crossed his arms and glanced out the window in the direction of where she sat on that cloud. "Shouldn't she be happy? After all...she's almost left here."

"Well..." Yamcha glanced in her direction. "I don't...think she is going home any time soon."

"What are you talking about?" Had she changed her mind? Admitted she made the whole thing up? If she didn't want a wish anymore, why were they on the quest at all?

"Er, well. I'm pretty sure she's decided to put that wish off for the sake of that kid's village."

"Uh." He squinted at Yamcha. Kid...village. Okay, he remembered _something_ about a kid at Capsule Corporation, and he remembered something about a village and the red ribbon army, but by that point in the telling he'd already tuned them mostly out and only listened to things that sounded like important land marks in the conversation. Like 'dragonballs are somewhere or another nearby'. And 'destroyed a whole army like it was nothing'.

"...What kid?"

Maybe he'd been paying slightly less attention than he admitted to.

Maybe.

(*)

She remembered feeling something at first, when she saw it all happen. She remembered feeling something, but she couldn't remember what it was she felt. Disbelief, grief, shame, some sort of shock? Anger? _Pain?_

If she could remember, she could react. She could do _something_. Her tears dried, and that wasn't _fair_. Her teammates, her family, her home. Sasuke. Naruto's dream. Konoha.

_Everything..._

Everything deserved _tears_. She should scream, she should cry. She should _fight_ , claw her way through the walls of the universe and take that monstrous woman apart with her own hands.

She would...

Gather together the scattered dust and ash of Naruto and Sasuke that spiraled through the gusting wind and vanished into the snow.

_She would_...

She wouldn't do anything. She couldn't do anything. She didn't do anything.

_Why didn't she feel anything_?

The wind whipped by the nimbus, tugged at her hair and blew strands of it into her face. Goku said something, but she didn't - couldn't - hear it. The wind drowned out his voice, called to mind the sound of the freezing air in the snowy kingdom she should have been. She should have been there, because at least she could have _tried_ to do something, instead of stand on the other side of crystal and watch helplessly as the people who meant the most to her died.

As the entire world, the _real world_ , the world _she belonged_ , was trapped in a genjutsu forever.

She didn't know how to _begin_ to feel. She crossed her arms over herself, warding off the wind as it cooled at the edge of the desert. The sun sank down the edge of the sky until it vanished over the horizon. They didn't stop directly at sunset, but she lost track of the time they flew on before they settled down in a wooded area.

She stepped off of the cloud as they set up the house. Yamcha said something, and for a moment it sounded like-

She pressed her hand to her head. Her head hurt. Her hand hurt. Everything hurt, and she still didn't _feel_ anything. She could be angry, she could be sad. She could be horrified and...fight. She leaned against a nearby tree and stared out at the gloom of the forest they landed themselves in. Nothing moved, and nothing would. Of course it wouldn't.

Leaves rustled in the wind above her.

" _Thanks to you_."

She started slightly and turned her attention toward the voice. It was a real voice. Real words. Reality, where the madness she'd suffered through for almost a year was only a delusion from heat and exhaustion. It could have been. It was _nearly_ believable.

Krillin glared up at her, looking thoroughly unimpressed. "You heard me. Thanks to _you_ , we totally forgot to get Bulma's card back from the witch...woman. Fortune teller."

"Well, we won't buy anything else anyway." Bulma waved her hand, and wandered into the house.

The sounds from the house were a confusing distraction. Even muffled as they were through the windows and the walls, it made her head hurt, and she didn't know why. She walked away from it, walked so that the sounds faded into silence, walked so that the light from the windows vanished into the gloom of the trees around her. Walked until it felt like if she kept walking the trees might eventually part to the open and waiting gates of Konoha.

She leaned against the nearest tree before she could look beyond it.

She sank to the ground, because an unreasonable part of her threatened to convince her simply to _run_. It didn't matter where. Maybe in the direction of the dragonballs. Maybe it didn't matter where she ran as long as she _did_ , and if she ran, she would be running _to_ something. To a solution that would...solve everything.

Something would put everything back the way it should be.

She wasn't tired. Sleeping was...she was asleep when they died. When she should have been there. When they fell into dust and scattered hope and dreams and all of the peace they were supposed to have, all the happiness they should have been...it all scattered in the wind. She should have been there to help. If nothing else, she could have been there to block the attack. Even if she couldn't heal from that horrible attack, then she would have protected the only hope that the world had...and that was what mattered, didn't it?

If it were her...

She pressed her forehead to her knees and curled her arms around her legs.

She didn't want to sleep.

She didn't really _deserve_ to go to sleep in a world so peaceful and calm, and she didn't _want to_.

Her body trembled. Had it been trembling the whole time? She hadn't noticed, with the movement of the cloud. But the world hadn't stopped moving since she sat down, since the wind vanished and left her with the silence of an empty forest and an empty world. Of the sound of a million people trapped in a dream world they could never wake from.

Of a world without Team Seven.

In a world without Team Seven, what was she?

In a world without Sasuke...

In a world without Naruto...

Did it even matter?

Why...why couldn't she just _focus_? Why couldn't she keep her thoughts together, organize herself, make herself _think_? Every time she tried, her thoughts scattered and shattered, and she felt the world around her collapse.

Absolutely every person who ever trusted her. Every person who ever cared, who loved her, who believed in her. Everyone she promised, everything she wanted and hoped for. Everyone who ever mattered to her, every precious person, every single person she loved.

She couldn't save a single one.

She didn't help even one.

_Oh-_

She promised to be there, she promised to help Naruto the next time.

_Just wait for me_

_It'll be the two of us next time_

_I'll do it_

She was asleep.

She was just _asleep_.

_From now on_

_I'll stop relying on him_

She was _dreaming._

They died and she was _dreaming_.

She wanted it to be a dream.

Everything...

_Everything_...

Why couldn't it just be a dream?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: It's a legitimately short chapter this time, because mostly it just didn't fit into last chapter. It would have about doubled the size, and that would be crazy longer than the rest. So yes, this chapter is shorter! But consider it a part two.


	60. Chapter 60

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She could avoid thinking about it. Because she had to exist, and to exist she had to do something, and that meant helping to finish gathering the dragonballs for the destroyed village. It was easy enough to focus on that. Only that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 60 is here, we're working on 100 now, geez.

When morning arrived, things felt clearer.

She still felt drained, heavier than she'd ever felt before, she still ached everywhere. It made her head and her heart hurt to think about the things that she'd seen the day before...but it wasn't like she had to do that. The air was crisp and cool around her, the sounds of the forest and the animals around her echoed through the leaves and the trees.

A part of her still felt as if she walked a few steps more she might find her home again.

She turned and walked back to the house with the others, determined not to look in the direction that felt like home should be.

She was here. They were there. The more she thought about it, it felt like she would go insane from grief. So...she didn't.

She could avoid thinking about it. Because she had to _exist_ , and to exist she had to do _something_ , and that meant helping to finish gathering the dragonballs for the destroyed village. It was easy enough to focus on that. Only that.

"Sakura." Yamcha looked up in her direction when she arrived at the house. The others had already gathered outside, and his expression was unnecessarily worried.

"We're ready to go, right?"

Goku sighed, a miserable expression on his face. "We're out of food. I'm hungry..."

She reached down and ruffled his hair lightly. "We can eat after we get the last of the dragonballs. Right?"

Yamcha nodded. "We should get there pretty quickly. Assuming it hasn't gone too far away yet, we can get in, grab the dragonballs, and leave."

Krillin gave a loud sigh. "Saying something like that just makes me think it's going to go worse."

"No way!" Pu'ar said, brighter and cheerier than the rest of them. "With all of us together and the dragon radar, we'll definitely get the dragonballs quickly!"

Goku nodded, unhappiness giving way to enthusiasm as the subject changed to the upcoming fight. "And then we can eat!"

(*)

'Get in, grab the dragonballs, and leave' was a nice plan...but actually they didn't _have_ a working dragon radar. Well, they did, but the dragonballs were hidden somehow. So. Even though finding the huge flying base wasn't that hard (once they were in the general vicinity of it, it was kind of hard to miss a giant flying ball of metal), figuring out where on it the dragonballs were hidden was a somewhat more difficult matter.

When it came to getting into the place, that was actually also surprisingly easy: there was even a great big balcony shaped landing on one side of it. He and Pu'ar jumped out of the plane with Krillin and Bulma, and then Pu'ar dropped the ship back into the capsule while he stuck the landing. It really wasn't that difficult.

Despite Bulma screaming in his ear as they fell. Seriously, he'd jumped further heights before. Even if he usually did it without the added weight at those times.

Naturally, Goku and Sakura simply hopped off of the Nimbus cloud. It was convenient in some ways to have a tiny little aircraft like that.

"Okay...I'm guessing just by looking that the dragonballs are going to be hidden either at the center of this place or in that little outcropping up there." He pointed up at a smaller sphere attached to the main body. Either it was some kind of navigational area, or it was an extra secure storage spot.

"So...you want us to split up again?" Sakura planted her hands on her hips as she looked over at him. There were darker circles under her eyes than usual, but aside from that, nothing in her stance or expression showed the darkness or trauma that he'd seen just yesterday.

It worried him.

"...Right. It's the quickest way to do it. Two of us go to the center of the ship and see what we can find, two of us go up there. Probably at least one of us is going to figure out exactly who's flying this thing, so no matter what, we have to be prepared for a fight."

Bulma glanced up at the sphere, shielding her eyes against the glare of the noonday sun. "I don't think it's up there. It's got to be the center of the ship. No one would go through this much trouble and put the dragonballs somewhere that can be so easily lost."

Sakura gave a small nod. "If that's the case, Goku and I can go up there and you two can go to the center."

Krillin frowned between Sakura and him. "...Where's that leave me?"

"Well...technically Sakura and Goku are two fighters. If you want to come with me, I guess that'll balance it out."

Pu'ar spoke up then. "But how do we communicate with the other group if we find the dragonballs?"

"We'll just bash a hole in the side of the ship!" Goku said. A bit more enthusiastically than someone should say that sort of thing. "When the other people feel the explosion they'll know the other one is done!"

Krillin squinted at the smaller boy. "...I can't be the only person who thinks that's gonna go horribly wrong."

"No..." Bulma shook her head, and dug through her pockets. "You're right. That's not going to work at all. Here, try these."

She opened a capsule and tossed a small device to Sakura, who turned it around in her hand, looking down at it in confusion.

"It's a communicator. Just put it in your ear." Bulma withdrew another and put it on hers to demonstrate how to wear it, before frowning again. "But these are just prototypes, the battery power is pretty weak. We'll have to save these for if we find the dragonballs or we _really need_ help. Otherwise they'll probably be dead when we actually need it."

He grimaced, looking toward the heavy looking iron door blocking their way into the fortress. "Yeah...let's hope all we use it for is the first."

"Course it will be!" Goku nodded. "Even though I don't know why we couldn't just break our way out..."

"Anyway." He glanced toward Sakura. Probably any of them present could break the door open...but considering the strength she displayed earlier...she'd do it the quickest. Hopefully also he quietest. "Can you get the door? Let's get going before they decide to move those dragonballs somewhere _crazy_."

"Hm?" Sakura glanced at him in surprise, before giving a slight shrug and stepping up to the door. "If you don't want to do it yourself, I guess."

The door crunched in on itself like it was made of tin foil, and collapsed to the ground with a resounding crash.

It was a little bit disturbing just how little effort it looked like she put into that punch.

(*)

The other side of the door...had been a bedroom of some sort. Inside the room were three beds, but there wasn't any signs of any of the residents anywhere nearby. While they'd planned to separate immediately, it actually took some time of wandering to find a place with a staircase going either way.

They probably should have looked for a map. Or climbed outside the ship to where they wanted to be. But then...searching for the center of the ship wouldn't have been any help there, unless they punched their way straight in. Which would probably be a bit counter productive.

Well...she had a decent sense of direction, and the halls weren't actually all that confusing. She was pretty confident they were walking in the direction of the outer sphere, even if she didn't have any proof.

The strange thing was...as they walked through the blueish metal hallways, there weren't any other sounds than their footsteps. In the air she could feel a slight vibration, similar to the constant sensation she'd felt on that damn plane, or in the underwater boat...but as for the sounds of people...there was nothing at all. They didn't see anything, either.

Compared to the Red Ribbon base, this was _exceedingly_ weird.

"Where are all the people?"

Goku looked up at her in surprise. "Huh?"

"This place is big...look at all the doors and other hallways we're passing while we walk. But we haven't seen or heard anyone at all."

He scrunched his face, and looked around the area as if it simply hadn't occurred to him as strange. "...We could look in every room! That way if they're hiding inside we can find them and figure out where the dragonballs are!"

He immediately sprinted up to the next door and burst through it, peering in as if there were no chance of an ambush on the other side.

" _Hello?"_ He frowned after a moment. "No one's in here. Just boxes of stuff."

He immediately ran to the next door a little further on, to the opposite wall of the hallway, and called in again. Finding no one seemed not to deter him at all, nor did the fact that this sort of searching slowed them down quite a bit. Every door they passed he burst into, calling out to anyone there, and every one he would abandon a moment later in disappointment.

The color was different, the situation was different, but running through the long hallway with empty rooms reminded her...reminded her of something...was it years ago?

_Sasuke?_

Her own voice echoed in her memory through familiar, different halls.

_Sasuke_!

_Sasuke_. These halls, this endlessly stretching path with no one around, searching through each door for something that could be anywhere.

It reminded her of searching for Sasuke.

It reminded her of...

Damn it, stop it.

_Stop._

" _Stop it_!"

He froze immediately, and looked over at her with surprise.

Had...she said that out loud? She blinked, and shook her head slightly. That...she let out a slow breath, forced the memories and the thoughts away from her. "It's a waste of time."

"Um...but there could be people who know about the dragonballs..."

She shook her head, starting on down the hall with purpose again. "There's no point. I think if anyone wants to find us, they're going to on their own. It'll be quicker to just get to that point up top first. That way we can get to the dragonballs before anyone knows we're looking for them. Right?"

"Uh..." He started after her almost immediately, expression still skeptical. "I...guess so."

"Come on then." She summoned a small, encouraging smile. After all, they had almost completed their quest. There was no reason for him to get discouraged or disappointed _now_ , just because she...had no idea what the hell she was doing anymore.

(*)

"I just want to let it be known that wandering a gigantic killer space ship-"

"It's just an air ship." Bulma cut in, like that was in any way important when space ships didn't exist anyway.

" _Ship without a map_ is a dumb idea." Krillin glared up at her. Without the dragon radar he _still_ wasn't even sure why she was there, other than the fact that she just didn't want to sit in that tiny house all day. But it wouldn't even have been so bad on her own anyway, so he didn't get why that'd be a problem.

Well _obviously_ it had something to do with her boyfriend, given the way she kept looking at the guy at every opportunity, but...well that was still pretty vague reasoning.

Who knew, it wasn't like he had a girlfriend before to compare the weird reasoning with.

Frankly, he also thought it was pretty stupid to leave the crazy strong girl who just suffered some kind of a break down alone with Goku on a quest for the last dragonballs, but no one was apparently going to ask him his opinion about _anything._ So...he might as well just start voicing it to the air if he wanted it heard.

"Well..." Yamcha shrugged. "If you know where we can pick _up_ a map I'd be happy to use one."

"Ha ha."

Seriously, how did they even _know_ they were running toward the center of the ship, anyway? It wasn't like they were running into more enemy forces or anything. They weren't meeting _any_ enemy forces, in fact. Which, maybe he was just crazy inexperienced about non-pirate booty treasures but, it implied they _weren't_ getting closer to any kind of treasure.

Weren't engines in the middle of ships this size, anyway?

Actually, why weren't there flashing lights or something? Were they really that sneaky?

"Hey..."

"Do you think we haven't been detected yet?" Bulma said, cutting him off and outright stealing his thunder like she planned it.

Yamcha frowned and looked up at the ceiling. "Yeah...that's pretty unlikely. Since that's a camera." He pointed up at a device that...

Oh. It was a camera.

Yep.

"So..." He frowned up at the thing. _It turned to look right at him_. "Ergh. Why...why aren't they doing anything?"

Behind them, something exploded. For a moment, he had the crazy feeling that Goku and Sakura _flat out ignored the plan_ and busted through the ship anyway. A moment later, a heavy thud shook the ground behind him and he spun around to face...

A pretty big robot with even bigger guns for its hands.

"Oh."

He shouldn't have said anything. Right?


	61. Chapter 61

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The robot stood in the hallway silent for a few moments, and he almost was willing to believe it might have just...turned on for a second and then off again. But that was way too much to hope for, in the middle of a giant flying ship of death.

The halls didn't get any more populous no matter how far they ran. It worried her. The outside was so well armored, so prepared for some kind of an attack...how could the inside be so...empty? Even if all of the people were busy controlling it...surely there would be _some_ kind of force to ensure people couldn't sneak inside and kill the ones operating it?

But there wasn't anything. There weren't even warnings to be found.

Goku stopped looking in the doors as they went, but even so, there were never any suspicious lights or shadows coming from under the doors, never sounds or signs of life.

It was a giant place, designed to house even more soldiers than the Red Ribbon Army's base...and it seemed to be completely empty. Yet...it drifted through the sky actively, not at rest, not carried by the wind. _Someone_ must have been there. _Someone_ must have hidden the dragonballs inside somewhere.

Someone must have picked up the man who ran away. So then, where was that _someone_?

It wasn't long before they came to the end of the hall and were presented two doors. The one to the right was labeled with a bright yellow sign proclaiming ' **Dragon ball storage unit** '. The other was marked... ' **Nothing interesting** '.

... _Really_.

Goku looked between the two of them for a moment, and then took a step toward the door on the right.

He paused and made a face.

"Well... _one_ of them is a trap." She sighed, planting her hands on her hips, and looking between the two.

He looked up at her with a frown. "The one to the right is closer to the place we're going, isn't it?"

"Well...it depends on what turns are ahead." She frowned. "But if they're going to put it somewhere secure, they wouldn't put a big sign on it proclaiming where it is, would they?"

"But how else would they find it?"

"If that's the way to the dragonballs, what's that way?" She pointed at the...blatant door. It was so blatant, actually, she was almost worried it was a reverse trap. But that...would be _absurd_. Just who would they expect to be this deep in their own fortress?

Honestly, she wouldn't have expected a trap to exist in this form at all, except that this was...

Painfully obvious.

She walked up to the door to the left and pressed the button next to it, allowing it to slide...up. Interesting. She'd assumed it would at least go somewhere into the wall like a few of the ones at Bulma's home, or swing open like a normal door. It led ahead a few feet, and then sharply turned right.

The walls on the other side of the door were made of a darker blue metal. Perhaps that was a good sign of getting closer to the exit?

She turned the corner, just to see the path terminate only a few feet away from it. On the wall was an amusingly poor doodle of a face, sticking out its tongue in a taunt.

So...

Trap.

The ceiling next to the door she'd entered clicked.

The sound could have meant anything. She moved on instinct more than certainty when she noticed her companion step up next to her. She lifted Goku by the back of his shirt and flung him through the air. He slid just under the door to safety before it slammed shut behind him. His yelp of surprise and alarm was barely audible through the thick door.

Around her, slots in the smooth metal ceiling opened up and thick blue gas began to billow down into the room. Really, it looked similar enough to the one from the tower that the gas was probably the same thing. Or at least it was based off of a similar toxin. She still hadn't gotten the opportunity to research the poisons of this world. Still, if it was the same toxin, then the ones behind it were probably the Red Ribbon Army after all.

If she punched through the door directly, not only was there a chance she might hit Goku if he were too close, but the gas might escape into the hall where he was. There wasn't good ventilation in the hall, and clearing the air might be difficult. Punching through the strange looking walls, however, held neither danger. And wouldn't any more difficult to achieve than the first option.

The blueish mist curled around her feet as she walked near to the door. She'd need to catch up to him wherever the path through the other door led, so finding an adjoining hall would be best.

The wall hummed softly when she pressed a gloved hand against it. It felt...warm. So it probably didn't lead to the outside. It likely lead to some other hall that the opposite door went to. Or a room, but that would be the same effect in the end.

_But..._

The hand she'd lifted to strike the spot on the wall trembled to a halt.

_In genjutsu..._

She'd felt pain. She'd been hurt before while in this world. Waking herself up with pain didn't work. It couldn't be some simple genjutsu. She hadn't felt anything wrong with her chakra network, either.

_But a genjutsu cast by the Rinnegan..._

If...if the kind of genjutsu cast by an advanced Sharingan were unbreakable, a Rinnegan would be even more powerful, wouldn't it?

Maybe a genjutsu could only be broken by an illusionary death breaking the mind out from its cage. After all, it would be almost impossible to break, requiring the victim to turn their back on the most basic rule of survival, just to return to reality.

She shut her eyes.

Her hands shook, and her legs felt weak.

_It might all be a dream._

Right now...Sasuke and Naruto might need her. Kakashi and their old enemy might need her chakra, chakra she kept wasting and had no true control of while she was trapped here, distracting them, useless to help in the battle.

If it was an illusion of sufficient strength, then...maybe her perception of time was warped. Moments might only have passed since she was caught in it. Such a thing was possible, wasn't it?

And if so...

On the outside...

_Sasuke and Naruto...might still be..._

Her legs collapsed under her, and the thick fog engulfed her.

(*)

The robot stood in the hallway silent for a few moments, and he _almost_ was willing to believe it might have just...turned on for a second and then off again. But that was way too much to hope for, in the middle of a giant flying ship of death.

"You possess the other dragonballs!" The voice that came out of the robot was...weirdly kind of human.

 _Wait_.

He squinted and took a step forward. Was...the giant lens in the middle of its chest actually a glass over of something else? Maybe a _seat_? Something did seem to be moving around in there, after all.

Yamcha rubbed at his hair, looking pretty unimpressed for being face to face with a giant robot. Or giant other thing. "Huh. Do we?"

The gun raised immediately. "D-Don't play coy!"

Did it just stutter? Was that a stutter or an audio glitch?

" _Am_ I being coy?" Yamcha looked _really_ confident. Even cocky. "If you're so sure, why did you even ask?"

Jeez.

For the one between them who _hadn't_ been trained by the invincible turtle hermit, he sure sounded confident facing down an unknown killer robot looking thing.

"I-I _didn't ask_!" The voice increased in pitch high enough to crack briefly, and then the hulking thing took a step forward. "You have them! Give them to me!"

Okay.

Okay. So it wasn't a robot. Which meant...that big thing in the middle must have been a cockpit after all. Actually, once it was close enough for the light not to reflect off of the _entire glass surface_ , it was kind of obvious what it was.

No wonder Yamcha looked so unimpressed from the start. From his different...vantage point...it must have been obvious from the start what the robo-armor was. And he probably also saw that pretty unimposing dog-man inside it. It was kind of hard to be intimidated by the dog-man, honestly.

"Are you crazy?" Bulma laughed from behind Yamcha. "Like we'd just hand them over to you!"

"If that's the case...I'll have to take them by force!" The green armor...suit lifted its hand toward them, and quite abruptly shot out a jet of flame in their direction.

He yelped and immediately jumped out of the way of the direct path of the flame. In his peripheral vision, he noted Yamcha grab Bulma and jump in the other direction. She screamed loudly enough that he couldn't catch whether the other man also made any kind of (potentially embarrassing) sound of surprise. He probably did, though.

The flame licked at the ground near him and then shot off down the path beyond them for a few moments before it died down to a flicker and vanished again. He scrambled to his feet, ready to move out of the way of the next attack.

The super heated steel beneath his feet sizzled right through his shoes to his feet.

" _Augh_!" He stumbled back against the wall again, as far from the strip of hot metal as he could, and glared over at the culprit. From where he was, he could _probably_ make a flying kick through that glass. And then he'd kick that dog _right into the hot spot_.

Yamcha sprinted toward the enemy.

He clearly possessed better shoes, but that was beside the point. _Now_ was probably the best time to attack, while their enemy was distracted by the obvious target. It would keep anything unfortunate from happening. Like a flamethrower in his general direction.

He gave a shout, and jumped forward, leg extended.

From the bottom of the round compartment that held its pilot, to small metal panels fell open.

Inside, two _large missiles_ aimed directly at him.

And fired.

(*)

 _Alive_.

She felt a little cold. It wasn't as cold as she expected to feel, lying in the middle of the snow.

Someone shook her roughly, either out of a kind of panic, or a lack of care. It might have been a shadow clone of Naruto's, it might have been Kakashi, trying to snap her out of her daze and back into the battle where her friends needed her. It wasn't Sasuke, but maybe it was that guy returning the favor.

She needed to get up and help.

She had to wake up, so that she could get to the battle in time, warn them before it was too late. For them, and for everyone else. She had to warn them that Kaguya would be ready.

Someone called her name.

_Wake up_

The world felt warmer than before as she adjusted to it. Maybe it wasn't as cold as she remembered.

She needed to.

 _Sakura_!

They _needed_ her to.

_Hey!_

Her friends...

If she didn't help...Naruto and Sasuke would...!

She forced herself through the unnatural haze of the lingering genjutsu with fresh determination and a surge of chakra. With effort, her eyes opened again, adjusted to the bright light around her, and took in the world she found herself in.

...She wasn't sitting in a genjutsu.

Goku, who relentlessly shook her shoulders while she struggled to open her eyes, finally let her go with a wide eyed look of relief. "You're okay!"

It wasn't the frozen wasteland she expected, imagined herself in. Naruto, Sasuke, Kakashi, even Obito were nowhere to be seen. Light metal walls still surrounded her on every side, and the small figure of Goku hunched over where he'd propped her against a wall. Behind him, the door that trapped her previously had been twisted and blown inward. Undoubtedly, from that kind of damage, it had been by his Kamehameha.

This world...

Naruto and Sasuke's...

It wasn't a dream or a genjutsu that she could so easily escape. It wasn't a nightmare she could wake up and run away from.

Her gaze fell to the ground, where thin wisps of the smoke curled lazily out through the door, apparently having _stopped_ some time around when he'd broken the room to get into it. "Goku..." 'Okay' didn't really feel like an appropriate word to use.

He beamed, and nodded enthusiastically. "I've gotten better at the Kamehameha now!" His expression soured slightly as he glanced back at the door behind him. "But that was a _mean_ trick. We haven't even done anything to them yet!"

Well...they _were_ infiltrating an enemy base with the intent of stealing dragonballs.

Considering what those things were supposed to do, deadly traps were somewhat to be expected. Even if she hadn't completely anticipated that one. But...it seemed awfully far for traps to be set up, when people _should_ live _somewhere_ in the base, and could encounter them just doing their daily business.

"Are...you okay?" He did, after all, have to go in after her, if he dragged her out as it looked like. Asking him about himself meant she didn't need to confirm if _she_ was okay.

_Naruto..._

He nodded again, turning his attention back to her and straightening up. "I held my breath!"

She pulled herself up to her feet, careful not to stumble and worry him any more than he already had. They couldn't afford to just sit around and wait for her strength to entirely come back. Now that there'd been a small _explosion_ involved in their infiltration...those dragonballs might get moved _anywhere_. Any kind of security might be implemented to protect the prize that much more. They were working on even more limited time than before.

_Sasuke..._

Goku gave a small huff as they passed through the right-side door instead, and started down a strange, diagonal path.

_Kakashi_

She stumbled and caught herself against a wall. Her gaze focused on her hand. A nail had chipped and broken at some point, but there was no other sign of the explosion she'd gone through so recently. Her seal struggled to heal nails, because she usually sealed it up again before it finished 'repairing' that kind of tissue.

It really was a worthless jutsu to have.


	62. Chapter 62

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What did an explosion even feel like? He was about to figure that out. At least he could learn something in his last moments. It wasn't something he ever wanted to learn about, if he was honest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man, Thanksgiving sure takes up a lot of time and energy. I made a thing, though. (http://fav.me/d9hyqj9)

He expected some kind of terrible impact. What did an explosion even feel like? He was about to figure that out. At least he could learn something in his last moments. It wasn't something he ever wanted to learn about, if he was honest.

He closed his eyes on instinct...and something impacted him from the wrong direction.

He crashed into the floor just about the moment before the explosion rocked the corridor behind him. Hot air...didn't really rush past his head and...why? He peeked one eye open, and...found Yamcha, teeth grit and huddled over him. Which was...pretty weird.

Not that he didn't appreciate living, but, wouldn't Yamcha have gone for the girlfriend instead?

"Uh...?"

Yamcha gestured for him to be silent, and then jumped into the air. It was pretty impressive, actually. It must have taken some skill to be able to leap into the air and kick the big armor...robot...suit from a prone position like that.

It still didn't explain why Yamcha didn't seem all that upset by the ruined, charred hall where his girlfriend should have been.

"Hey, are you gonna help?" Yamcha glanced over his shoulder as the big metal thing crashed down face first with a mechanized shout.

"Oh." He...probably should do something. Now that he wasn't about to die in fire.

He stumbled up to his feet and charged the thing. "We just have to get that guy out of the cockpit, right?"

"That's right. He'll be harmless without it."

The thing scrambled on the floor, before it pushed itself up. "Tha...that's not true! Don't listen to him!"

It would have been a more convincing claim if it wasn't a pretty puny looking dog behind the cracked glass. And didn't have that much trouble standing back up from being knocked on its face. Even he stood up before it did, and he had a missile shot at him.

"Hey..." He glanced up at Yamcha. "Let's not let him do that thing again."

"Yeah. Let's not."

Worrying: the metal frame barely looked scratched from the explosion or crashing under its own weight. The glass did, though. So...at least he didn't need to test whether he could break through the metal with his own strength?

He glanced over at his taller companion. For someone who must have just lost someone close to him, he...looked not that shaken up at all. Huh. Maybe they were...fighting...?

Yamcha crouched, getting ready to attack as the arm of the robot leveled at them again. He sprinted forward, not waiting on the enemy to attack this time (not...that he'd planned on waiting the first time, either). If he could break the flame thrower, at least, they wouldn't have to worry about getting cooked. Or burning their feet.

He gave a great shout and his fist collided with the barrel of the flamethrower. The metal crumpled in slightly, bent and twisted...and seared the skin of his fist. " _Gah_!" He stumbled backward and clasped a hand over the tender red skin of his fist. It didn't do _nearly_ as much damage as he expected it to, and the metal wasn't even dinged!

" _Wolf Fang Fist_!" The air howled somewhere behind him, and Yamcha appeared in a blur of white and blue. From the angle he stood at, he couldn't quite make out all of the strikes, but the glass cracked, heaved inward, and then finally shattered by the time the attack finished.

It was an impressive speed blitz. Not much compared to the Kamehameha, as far as a go-to move, though.

Not...that he knew how to do that one, yet, either. But eventually he'd get the hang of it. And...probably make something awesome for himself in the meantime. If his old master was right about how many years it would take to master that thing after all.

He'd get a cooler name for it, too.

He walked up next to where Yamcha stood, and looked up at the dog man the other now shook.

"So this is one of Emperor Pilaf's places, huh?"

Who?

"E-Even if you beat me, this place is too much of a maze! You'll never be able to find the dragonballs!" The dog's voice sounded a little more desperate than it did confident.

"Oh yeah?" Yamcha's expression turned into a smirk that...looked surprisingly sinister, for being the (ex-) boyfriend of a hot rich girl. But then again, the dog did just kill said girlfriend _and_ his pet-friend, so. "Then I guess you'll just have to _lead us_ there."

The dog made an exasperated sound. "Why would I _ever_?"

Yamcha lifted his free hand, and curled it into a fist.

(*)

How long were they wandering this place?

She'd lost track, after the fork in the road. For a while, she'd felt drowsy after being trapped in the room. For lack of anything better to do, she'd checked her body for toxins...but it seemed whatever had been in the room wasn't the same toxin at all. Which was...strange. Why would a flying fortress like this one have nonlethal traps? Perhaps the one in charge was concerned that their own men might be caught in it?

Except, _where were_ those men? Even after setting off the trap and breaking out of it, they'd seen nothing.

It didn't make any sense. It almost seemed as if the people inside had abandoned the ship before they arrived. But...how could they have known? Were the dragonballs still even present, or had they wasted their opportunity and the zenni? This place was so huge, how would they even be able to know? And if their initial guesses were wrong, how long could they look before the people inside would figure out and evacuate _then_?

_Damn_...

If only she had some sort of a sensory jutsu. If she had... _something_.

If she had _some way_ of helping. If... _anything_ could have brought her back in time.

Even if she didn't fall...would she have been able to help at all? She hadn't done... _anything_. Ever since Obito gained the power of the ten tails, she hadn't been able to do anything but stand by and watch. They soared on ahead of her, shone like twin suns in the middle of the darkest night of the shinobi world, and the only thing she'd done was stand back and support them from a distance.

After _everything_...what had she done? What could she _do_? She was _there_ , she was _awake_ and she was _there_ , and it didn't even matter! She couldn't stop Obito, she couldn't fight Madara, and she couldn't do _anything_ when they fought Kaguya.

She couldn't even _save herself_.

Even if she were there, even if she never ended up in the wrong dimension, even if she were _present_ to save them, _what could she have even done_?

Her teammates ran so far ahead of her now, reached the stars while she still stood on the ground so far behind them she could barely see them any longer, she couldn't even protect them.

She couldn't even _save them_.

If she couldn't even save them, if she couldn't stand in front of them, if she couldn't stand beside them, and she couldn't even reach them when they needed her, then... _what was the point_? What the hell was the point of _anything she'd done_?

Because, after all of it, they...

"Sakura?" Goku stared up at her, leaning up on his toes, brows tightly knit.

Pink obscured part of him.

Her hand, at some point, clenched in her hair, tugged at it, dug into the skin of her scalp. Her eyes burned with tears she hadn't realized she'd shed. At some point, apparently, she'd gotten so lost in thought she'd simply stopped walking.

When...did that happen?

"What's wrong?" He continued to frown up at her, squinting as if somehow he could figure out the answer merely by looking at her.

She forced her hand to release her hair and settle at her side. He was so focused on her face, probably he wouldn't see the tremor in her fingers.

_No matter what the situation a shinobi must keep her emotions on the inside._

"I...I'm...I'm fine" She forced a smile. It felt weak and paper thin, but if she had time...she could force strength into it. She could summon warmth. She knew how to fake a smile. She had _mastered_ faking a smile, because shinobi...shinobi...they...

"You stopped and started crying." He reached up and poked her stomach with his finger, expression concerned. "Is it all the poison? Are you still sick? Can't you heal yourself up?"

_You must make the mission your top priority_

She shook her head quickly, and carefully lifted her hand again to smooth her hair back. It had gotten too long. It was much too long. Her hair was much more manageable and short during the war. What kind of a serious shinobi let it get so out of control even when times were calm? She knew better than to do _that_.

Damn it, her hands still shook.

"I...really, it was nothing. I was just...remembering." Her gaze dropped to the ground briefly, stared down at shoes that weren't even hers, weren't anything like a shinobi would usually wear.

There was something _important_ to do. She'd already decided. She existed. She existed, when _no one else did_ , she existed when she couldn't do _anything_ to save all of the people who went to their dreams believing that Naruto would save them, and believing she would protect Naruto.

She existed. And she was supposed to help Goku save that village.

She nodded, and started walking again, careful not to reach out to Goku to encourage him to follow her. He'd feel the way her hands trembled, think that she was still sick, and worry about her when...she was the last person who deserved to be worried about.

_You must possess a heart that never shows tears_

It felt as if, in only a few more moments, everything inside her might actually just _shatter_.

(*)

"So...um." He glanced up at the taller man.

Honestly, the guy seemed kind of strict and rough with the dog, but otherwise, he didn't seem to have any problem at all with his girlfriend and friend just being...exploded. Or roasted. Or whatever horrible unpleasant thing happened to them that they didn't even have bodies left afterward.

He wasn't really sure what to say, considering Yamcha had chosen to save _him_ instead.

What did a person say in response to that?

Yamcha glanced down at him, eyes slightly wide, expression devoid of any stress lines he'd expect to see. If the guy resented him...he seriously hid it pretty well. Which was kind of creepy under the circumstances. "What is it?"

He glanced between the mandog with the slumped shoulders and the man who looked...normal.

"Uh...I just..." He rubbed at the back of his neck, grimacing. "I guess...I just...wanted to say something about the...uh...explosion..."

"Oh." Yamcha shrugged and huffed out air like it wasn't anything at all. "Don't worry about it. You can pay me back some other time, right?"

Okay, that was officially _too weird_. Even for this guy he barely knew. "You're taking the loss of your girlfriend and cat pretty well."

Oh, that was tactless. But he couldn't really help blurting it out. It was just _there_. The huge turtle in the room. And this guy just didn't even seem to _care_. It was _freaking him out_!

Yamcha blinked down at him. "...What?"

"What?"

Seriously.

What.

Did he block it out or...?

"Are you _stupid_?"

That...okay that was a girl _what_. And came from about Yamcha's _groin_ level. He blinked and looked toward the voice. A...a tiny blue haired girl peered out at him with _much irritation_ from his pocket.

Which...

Was...

_Oh damn it_. That _stupid watch thing_!

A moment later, that blue cat companion appeared in a puff of smoke. What had looked like a fly was...actually Pu'ar. Who must have stowed away at some point when...wait. He felt stupid, but he also just felt _confused_. When did he get the chance to do that?

"How...when did you even _get there_?" Well, Pu'ar made sense, being able to fly, but...how would _Bulma_ get there?

She frowned up at him. It was kind of intimidating, for being from someone so tiny. "Isn't that _obvious_? I climbed in after _someone_ started throwing flame everywhere. Of course the safest place to go would be with Yamcha."

Yamcha shrugged. "It was a pretty good idea, considering there's no other cover."

Well...

_Well then_.

Somehow he felt...not as bad, and also a little less special at the same time.

Weird.

"It's..." The dog spoke in a tired voice, looking over his shoulder at Yamcha. "They're in here."


	63. Chapter 63

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well...they could probably just break a hole in the wall and see if the cloud could just fly them back to the balcony. It would let the others know they were done. Or in trouble. Either way they'd establish communication again.

The path from that split turned out not to be particularly different from the one before the two-door trap. Apparently whoever designed the fortress didn't expect enemies (or the unwelcome) to ever outsmart their one trap. Or...well, there was the off chance that maybe they'd circumvented most of the security by entering where they did...but that seemed a bit too convenient. And a bit odd for the doors to be the last of the security measures protecting dragonballs anyway.

The lack of soldiers and personnel to deal with in the halls also seemed too convenient, but that didn't make any other terrible traps spring on them. Everything remained as quiet and still as it had been from the start, and that...didn't make any sense. Even if they were headed away from the dragonballs, given the size of the place they should eventually get near some _other_ sensitive area worth patrolling.

She struggled to keep the memory of another empty base like this pressed deep in the corner of her mind where it wouldn't distract her.

Goku continued to direct frequent glances up at her as they walked, but didn't say anything. She chose to ignore it, because...answering the questions he didn't ask...wasn't something she could do. It was just a distraction from the mission at hand, and she'd caused enough distractions already. Getting that village back was...all she could focus on. Maybe it would actually work if she told herself to do it again.

It was _partly_ a guess to decide the door at the very end of the hallway they stood in might lead to the area that stuck out from the rest of the fortress. Given their relative position, though, it was a well educated one. They'd also yet to find any dead ends. Presumably there were, but...the path they took hadn't walked them into any. It was worth opening _that_ door, at least.

The door led to another hallway, with double doors on the other side. While it was _different_ , it still didn't look like somewhere someone would hide dragonballs. Then again, putting them in what was arguably the least fortified part of a flying fortress didn't make much sense to begin with. Nothing they'd encountered so far made _any_ sense.

She clenched her fists as she made her way to the door.

"Are you ready?"

Goku glanced up at her and nodded, reaching back to grab that red staff of his. "Yeah!"

As they approached the doors, the metallic barrier slid open, and she stepped into the room. Cluttered as it was with machinery and various devices she didn't even remotely recognize, it didn't have any dragonballs in plain sight.

It did have two other people, though.

Goku stepped up next to her, and looked at the others with wide eyes and a surprised expression. "Oh. You guys!"

The tall woman standing off to the right near a console glared down at Goku with some irritation, but it was the small blue skinned man that sat on a slightly upraised chair that spoke first, clapping his hands.

"Ah! I thought you'd arrive. Good!" He gave a little cackle. "Now that you're here, I can take all of the remaining dragonballs from you right now!"

Goku huffed. He didn't seem very concerned about the threat. But...the two in the room didn't look all that intimidating, either. "You need to give me the rest of the dragonballs."

"Are you joking?" The blue man laughed. "This time I'm prepared for all your tricks, you little twerp! I'm getting those dragonballs from you and then you'll _grovel at my feet_!"

"No way!" He frowned and took a step forward.

"Mai, now!" The blue man jumped to his feet and threw down a capsule, just as the woman withdrew one of her own.

As nonchalant as Goku seemed to be about their threat...they seemed confident and experienced. And somehow they had the ability to disguise the dragonballs. She couldn't say what danger they posed, and she didn't have the time to ask.

After all, last time she'd let him fight someone on his own, he nearly died. The last time that she...

She...didn't have time to think. Barely had time to react. While the smoke of the capsule release cleared, the two were already running at the structures that appeared from those. Fighting two people in such a tight space could be dangerous. Neutralizing one of them as quickly as possible was the only option.

She barely thought anything beyond that. _Helping_. _Doing something_.

Her fist slammed into the metal ground in front of her. Metal split and gave way, shredding from the force of the impact. The floor rent in two, jagged slice of chakra slicing through the room until it engulfed the freshly created armored suit. It plummeted to the floor below with a loud crash just as Mai got her hand on it. The woman nearly tumbled down after it, in fact. A moment later and she might have.

"Wh-what?" Mai stared down at the fissure, leg hanging partway off of the uneven cut in the metal, before she scrambled away from the considerable drop, back to the corner of the room she started.

"Wow!" Goku grinned, looking up at her for a moment. "I wanna try!"

She turned her attention away from the woman to Goku...and the blue figure now climbing into his own version of the device. "...Do you think you can?"

He frowned, and nodded.

Well...it wasn't possible for him to mimic the jutsu. Even if he could recognize what she did, she wasn't certain if ki could be manipulated in that way. Even if it could, was Goku familiar and capable enough with even ki to do it?

Or...would his natural strength be able to emulate her ability, as it sometimes did?

He stared at the ground a moment, and then gave an enthusiastic shout. His fist slammed down into the ground, much as hers did, and dented the metal inward quite impressively. The metal didn't split apart. It did, however, still send an impressive shock wave through the particular plate of metal he hit. A wave of impact rolled through the metal, until the point where the blue-skinned man buckled into his huge suit.

While the impact probably would have been enough on its own to knock it over...it seemed the weight of the device created enough of a stress point that the metal finally _did_ tear. Just enough to launch that section of the metal upward...and propel the small man and his metal frame into the ceiling.

...Absurd.

She blinked up at the suit, wedged halfway through the ceiling. It was...surprisingly effective for an attempt to emulate her strength _without_ chakra.

She sprinted forward to Mai, who had just stumbled to her feet again, and gripped the high collar of the woman's jacket. "Tell me where the dragonballs are."

The woman kicked at her legs...but...she wasn't nearly Goku's strength. Clearly the metal armor was compensation for her lack of physical strength. That said, announcing a ninja tool before using it _was_ a very good way to allow an enemy to be prepared for it.

"I...wouldn't tell you!"

Goku walked up next to her, and the woman gave a squeak.

"Th...they're...at the center of the ship!"

Ah, so Bulma was right after all. Then...the reason there weren't any soldiers in their path might have been because they were diverted to deal with the Yamcha and Krillin. They...were...hopefully alright. The communicator in her ear never activated while she was _awake_ , so...if they'd gotten into trouble, they would have said something.

Something also might have exploded as a result of the trouble, too.

"They've...probably almost gotten them by now." She glanced down at Goku, holding the other woman in the air for the moment. "We should try to get out of here so we can meet up with them outside."

He made a face. "Are we gonna have to walk that _whole_ way back for nothing?"

Well...they could _probably_ just break a hole in the wall and see if the cloud could just fly them back to the balcony. It would let the others know they were done. Or in trouble. Either way they'd establish communication again so they knew where to reunite.

"That won't happen!" Mai gave a triumphant laugh. Or as much of one as she could with her airway constricted by her collar. "By now, Shu will have dealt with them!"

(*)

"So. Uh...do you remember the way back out?"

Yamcha blinked and looked down at him. As if that was just some concept so far from his mind that he didn't even recognize it when it was said.

This worried him a little.

He squinted up at the taller man.

"...You just knocked out our guide. So...you do remember how to get back from here, right?"

"Uh..." Yamcha stared down at the unconscious dog, and rubbed at the back of his neck.

Never had a nervous laugh made him feel like smacking someone so _much_.

He _didn't_ smack the taller man. The guy was pretty strong. And also recently saved his life. But he did have the urge.

"Well, I guess we could just break through the walls?"

Bulma spoke up before he could. " _And then fall to our deaths_?!"

He sighed. "...What about asking them where they are and back tracking to them?"

She shook her head from her boyfriend's pocket. Which was still...just really unsettling. "The communicators don't have a long enough battery life."

"Well..." Yamcha squinted, and crossed his arms. I guess we could try retracing our steps and just bring this guy along. When he comes to we can get him to lead us back to that balcony we started at."

He sighed and stared down at the...dog. Yamcha hit the guy pretty hard. "Whenever that happens."

"Assuming Goku doesn't just break in and find us first out of impatience."

Well...

It was _still_ a better choice than 'wander aimlessly forever' or 'break through walls and try not to die on something'. Maybe if it took a while they'd _listen_ to him when he demanded they find a ship before trying to go spelunking into a massive airship with labyrinthine hallways.

Yamcha hefted the unconscious guy on his shoulder. "I've got this guy, you get the dragonballs."

"Yeah...sure." It was probably better not to give one person _all_ seven dragonballs if these things...actually worked...right?

"Hey..." Pu'ar spoke as they started back toward the open doors behind them. "What would happen if we summoned the dragon right here, instead?"

(*)

Punching through walls was...pretty tedious.

It was no doubt much quicker than trying to retrace their steps _through_ the ship, but it didn't make it less tedious to actually do. In that respect, Goku's gung-ho attitude toward it worked just fine for her. After only a few rooms, he happily ran forward and started doing it himself.

Each time he did, he changed it slightly. Each time, the wall twisted and caved inward differently before it broke.

She planted a hand on her hip as he made another attempt.

He was... _definitely_ trying to do it the way she did. Punching through a metal wall wasn't much different from a stone one. The primary difference was that with enough force, it could cause the metal to shatter inward, rather than crumble. He was almost certainly trying to achieve the same effect.

Mostly, he was succeeding in tiring himself out. Though he did quite effectively punch a hole through the wall and bend in a good portion of the wall surrounding the point of impact. The effort had...diminishing returns, though. Her technique didn't tire her out at all, given the use of chakra. Raw muscle power, on the other hand...

Well, it was very impressive, at least. There weren't many ninja with that level of raw strength, even if he'd managed to augment it with ki a little. Most ninja could augment their strength with chakra as well. Not as effectively as her master and herself could, but...

"You'll hurt yourself if you keep that up."

"I've almost got it!"

He didn't. But he also didn't hurt himself.

She touched his shoulder before he could run up to the next wall. "Look."

Showing off...wasn't...really normal. There were _times_ when a ninja should, but as a rule, keeping ones skills a mystery was always high priority, even sometimes with teammates. However...she...had thought about teaching Goku anyway, hadn't she?

Before...

She blinked, and clenched her fist, yanking herself back to reality.

"Watch closely, Goku." She summoned extra chakra to her hand. With most actions, she didn't really need to. The action was such a force of habit that it simply happened without thought now. For this, however...it was...unusual. Augmenting her strength so much in such a slight movement would be dangerous for normal life, and so...it required at least _some_ conscious though.

She straightened a finger, pointed it at the wall...and poked it.

Chakra surged through her body and exploded at the point of contact. The smaller point made the damage even more...explosive.

It was really quite impressive, honestly. Regardless of how well she knew how it worked, it still looked _cool_.

Even more so to Goku, it seemed, who stared at the remains of the wall with open mouthed shock. "A...ah...! _How did you do that_?!"

"It's not just strength." She smiled down at him, and...it felt warmer than anything she'd felt all day. "It's chakra."

He was quiet for a few moments, and then he grinned up at her again, hands clenched in fists, expression radiating excitement. " _I wanna_ _show Krillin_!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pilaf and gang were going to be bigger threats originally, to make up for the lack of a tournament...but...honestly it would be less faithful to Dragonball if they were. So, some more of Dragonball's whimsy ended up involved. Maybe another day.


	64. Chapter 64

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If one of them weren't wearing the communicator when she used it...would they even hear her? Was the radio loud enough to be heard in a pocket? That would interfere with stealth if it could be. Maybe Bulma kept hers on the entire time? She...should have, in retrospect, but it slipped her mind. But the chances that the others had contacted them needing help were rather slim.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sakura could perhaps teach Yamcha and Krillin to use chakra, as chakra is simply another method of using ki, but they'd need to ask her to do it first.
> 
> And get the bell.

After the woman's threat, she and the blue-skinned man both made a terrible attempt at a sneak attack, and fallen unconscious _surprisingly_ easily. Otherwise, she probably would have at least _tried_ to get a bit of information out of them about 'Shu'. As much as Goku seemed unconcerned about the person (apparently a cohort of theirs that he'd met before) and as unlikely as it seemed for anyone associated with them to be any real danger...she was a little concerned. After all, even the Red Ribbon Army had a few dangerous people in its midst. Perhaps she was...overly paranoid about the welfare of her teammates.

Still, she didn't know how long the communicators would last, given Bulma's warning. Contacting them just to ensure they were still in one piece might mean they wouldn't be able to contact them once the dragonballs were found. Considering the chances of their not being in one piece were...slim, it was _more_ reckless to throw away their ability to reunite on a hollow threat.

Ultimately, she put off the communication until they were already outside of the base itself, back on the Nimbus. Even then, they flew back to the balcony they'd originally landed on just to be sure that there was no sign of the others either present or having returned there at some time before them and left again. Other than simply float along near the base and wait for some sign of life from the others, there really wasn't any more waiting to do.

She turned the communicator in her hand with a frown. It was even smaller than a wireless radio, but its structure was about the same, without a collar. That was probably for the best, considering...she might not be able to depend on Goku knowing how to use the radio if she couldn't.

She glanced up at the sun, more than halfway across the sky now, and fitted the device to her ear. If it worked the same way as the other, then the button she found on the outside arm of it would be what activated it.

"...Is there anyone over there?"

She frowned slightly, as she listened to the silence of the late afternoon.

If one of them weren't wearing the communicator when she used it...would they even hear her? Was the radio loud enough to be heard in a pocket? That would interfere with stealth if it could be. Maybe Bulma kept hers on the entire time? She...should have, in retrospect, but it slipped her mind. But the chances that the others had contacted them needing help were rather _slim_.

Eventually, a somewhat distant and metallic sounding Bulma responded.

_"We've got the dragonballs over here."_

Well...it wasn't a surprise that they found the dragonballs, considering Bulma was the one who'd guessed at the position of the dragonballs to begin with, but it was somewhat reassuring to know they _had_ found them. There was, after all, quite a large portion of the giant floating base none of them explored.

" _Actually, it's good timing, we were just thinking about summoning it here."_

"...You were _what_?"

_"It's just that we've got a bit of a problem_... _"_ The voice hesitated briefly, before continuing. _"We had a guide to get to this point and...he's not working right now. I can't find a map anywhere, either."_

"Ah..." Well. That did make sense, considering none of them would be able to employ the strategy of walking in a straight line through the side of the structure. The getting lost part made sense. The summoning the...dragon _didn't_.

"So you were _going to use the dragonballs_?"

" _Well, it's a little dangerous just wandering around with all seven of them like this."_

She frowned, and Goku looked up at her, expression curious. "What is it? Are they almost there?"

"They're...lost." Essentially. "And apparently can't wait to use the dragonballs."

He screwed up his face into something like irritation, and huffed, looking back at the metal sphere. "They should just break through the walls!"

It...was a valid strategy...but she doubted Yamcha or Krillin possessed the firepower or the stamina to succeed. But going in after them wouldn't help very much, either. The place was far too huge, they'd be wandering for days even if they took the most efficient routes to search the complex.

"Wait. You don't have anything to break through walls with, do you?"

The other side remained quiet for a few moments.

" _...No. But even if we tried, we're too deep inside this thing. There's at least two miles between us and the nearest outer wall in a straight line."_

Goku, who had been silently watching the floating base since he made his suggestion, spoke up again suddenly. "What if I blast through a wall out here? With a Kamehameha, they could follow the sound of the explosion!"

That...was what he'd planned on doing originally, before the communicators.

And...

It wasn't actually such a bad idea.

(*)

Following explosions was, in fact, a pretty good idea. It helped that the explosions cut a path for them to follow out. And that there wasn't actually anything of any real threat to them on the base. For some reason (probably anticipating his successful wish), Pilaf created himself a giant ship _just_ for his three people to stay in. It, and the weird dragon radar proof safe they'd made, certainly caused the retrieval to be _inconvenient_ , but...on the bright side, it meant that there weren't bystanders around to be hurt by rogue ki beams.

At least the flame throwers and missile launchers in that power suit (and that the other two apparently had similar) explained how the last of the dragonballs got from the rogue Red Ribbon Army escapee's hands into Pilaf's. From what he'd encountered during the assault on the Red Ribbon base, those guys were...less than capable of handling rockets and thick metal armor on their own.

But...that wasn't really important anymore.

As much as a desperate summoning of the dragon might have been a good escape route (maybe the thing would just tear straight through the hull of the ship!), when that wasn't their _only_ choice, it seemed like a much better idea to not do it anywhere near the base where the others could interfere. After all, they _did_ have a bit of a grudge to settle after...last time. And they would...probably not be wishing for anything as benign as 'panties' with their stolen wish. Thus, rather than risk enslavement to the tiniest world emperor, they'd flown back to where they'd set up camp at the night before. It felt...kind of...different to be the ones standing around all seven dragonballs this time. When put together, the slight glow in them amplified to an ambient light that bounced off of the blades of grass and each of the people standing there, tinting everything golden yellow.

"So...ready with that wish, Goku?"

The small boy gave a sharp nod. "Uh huh."

He glanced over toward Sakura, who watched the orbs with a look of...something. Honestly, he couldn't identify it. At first glance, he'd have said it was fascination or apprehension...but there was something distant about it that didn't match either one.

Then again...he'd yet to see her for a moment without some kind of distance in her gaze since they'd spoken with that old crone. It was a little unnerving.

"You might wanna shield your eyes."

(*)

Overall, this quest for the dragonballs had taken...only...a little over two weeks. It hadn't been long at all, particularly considering they were competing against not one, but two other interests. It _felt_ like longer. Maybe...because she'd started to feel just how long she'd been in this world since she'd gone on it.

Maybe everything still felt _wrong_ because she wanted it to. If it felt wrong, then perhaps it might not be real. And then...everything could be a genjutsu. She could be rescued, freed from this horrible nightmare and brought back to the fight that Naruto and Sasuke _would win_. None of this would matter, and she wouldn't be a failure.

It _wasn't_ wrong. And this world...the _reality_ she found herself in...wasn't as easily escaped as a genjutsu.

She took a step back with the others, as Bulma held out her hand and recited some sort of incantation. The constant glow of the orbs brightened at her words, and burst into shining golden light, nearly blinding her with its intensity and suddenness. A howling, buzzing sort of sound filled the air, and a beam of energy shot off into the sky with surprising speed.

She held up her hand to steady herself against a final blast of wind, and craned her neck to look up at...blazing yellow and gold, slowly solidifying into a serpentine shape, filling the dark sky as far as the forest allowed her to see in every direction.

As a face larger than her entire body finally formed into color and definition, a voice so deep and loud that it rumbled the ground beneath her feet spoke from the air. " **You who have gathered the seven dragonballs...come, and speak. I shall grant to you any one wish you desire**."

She stared up at the gigantic creature, open mouthed.

It was...certainly _not_ Kaguya. She'd never seen anything like it, in fact. Even the most amazing summoned creature didn't approach it in size, save for the ten tails itself and the strange statue that fought them while the tailed beasts and Naruto fought Madara. And...none had appeared with such flare. It was certainly not a usual summoning jutsu formula, if it was anything at all.

"I want..." Goku trailed off, and then frowned over at Yamcha. "Um. What is the name of that village?"

The taller man smacked his forehead with his hand loudly enough that the sound echoed off the nearby trees. "Ah...damn. We should have gotten that kid again before we did this."

Bulma made an irritated sound and waved up at the creature. "Well we can't just put him back in them now!"

" **Speak your wish with haste. I do not wish to wait further.** "

His voice cut through the voices of the others, and drew her attention back to the unnatural red glow of his eyes. Somehow, his voice...even the memory of it seemed to reverberate through her being, made her feel unsteady as if he'd grabbed her shoulders and shaken her moments before.

The words...at first they had been hard to process, but...now they stuck in her mind. This...dragon could do anything. Any wish, any _desire_ , it could fulfill, couldn't it? No matter how impossible, no matter...no matter how hard it was, no matter what the rules of reality dictated.

It could send her back to that world. It could bring back an entire village lost. It could give anyone the world to rule if it so chose to.

Her voice was soft, barely audible to herself while the others huddled and discussed how to best phrase their wish without accidentally asking the dragon something they didn't mean. She didn't even really mean to say it. "Bring them back."

Yamcha glanced over at her, apparently the one standing closest to her. "Huh? You think 'bring them back' is really gonna-"

" _Bring them back_!" Her hands clenched at her sides into fists.

It wasn't fair. It wasn't _right_. Her entire _world_ was dead. _Everyone_ was gone. Everything...after everything, they lost _everything_ , and it was because she couldn't do a thing to help. She failed everyone, she failed to do anything, to make _any_ difference, and now they were...

Everyone was...

If there were more than one wish, why did one little village take priority over an entire world? Why couldn't she have her _home_ back, why couldn't she go back where she belonged, where Goku promised she would go, where everything was _alive_ , where everyone was going to survive, and find peace, and _Sasuke came home_?

" _I want you to bring them back!_ "

" **That wish is not specific enough.** " The voice of the dragon rumbled through her thoughts, disrupting them and scattering them for as long as it spoke. " **I cannot grant such an imprecise wish.** "

"Sakura..." Goku turned toward her then, expression wary and concerned.

She shut her eyes, clenched her teeth. She had to, because if she didn't, she'd break again, start to cry uselessly instead of help. And she wouldn't. She _couldn't_ be so useless. Not...if...she could save them.

How could she _not_?

" _Bring them back!"_ She shouted it over the others, before they could say anything else. She shouted it over her own thoughts. She screamed as if somehow it could force this dragon to do something she thought even if she didn't say it out loud. After all, hadn't it said it would grant her anything? "Bring...bring back Naruto and Sasuke! Bring back Kakashi-sensei and Lady Tsunade! Bring back Shizune and Ino and Lee and my parents and Konoha! I want you to bring back my world, _damn it_! Bring them _back_! Please, please just _bring them back_!"

In the silence that fell upon the forest around her, she could feel the gaze of every one of the people around her staring directly at her. She didn't look back at them. She didn't say anything.

Even if she wanted to...she didn't think she could say anything else.


	65. Chapter 65

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She just needed to know her people, the ones she loved, the ones she failed to protect even a little bit, were alive and okay again. Even if she couldn't be there. Even if the price she paid was never going home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp. There's only one way to deal with a cliffhanger, and that's rewind and pretend you don't remember how it happened the first time!
> 
> I mean.
> 
> Uh.
> 
> Resolve it.

The silence stretched on an unnatural length of time. She didn't know how long it was, couldn't bear to count or pay attention. She needed to be still. She needed to be strong, so she wouldn't shatter. She just needed to know _her people_ , the ones she loved, the ones she failed to protect even a little bit, were alive and okay again. Even if she couldn't be there. Even if the price she paid was never going home.

They needed to be alive.

_They needed to live_.

She didn't know how long it took before he spoke, but the sound of the dragon's voice was so loud and sudden that it shook through her body almost violently. It stole her breath away, and made her stomach lurch.

" **That wish is beyond my power**."

She stared down at the ground, eyes wide open. It took her a moment before she could even summon the strength and determination to look up at the great beast. The great liar.

"You...That can't be true! Why? _Why can't you_?"

The dragon's red eyes glowed a slightly brighter red as it stared down at her in silence for another moment. **"My power does not extend to distant dimensions."**

She...she...

The energy and strength that remained in her limbs fled all at once, and she collapsed to her knees.

It...wasn't...

It...

_Was hopeless_.

A hand clasped to her mouth, struggling to forcibly regulate her breathing, to stop herself from hyperventilating. There were people around. A giant dragon loomed over her head demanding a wish and refusing to give her the only thing she wanted...and none of it mattered. _None of it mattered_. Because...everyone...

Everyone was really...

They'd never... _never..._

Her fingers dug into her forehead, scalp, hair. Her back hunched, part of her wanting to just curl up and disappear. She could disappear! She could disappear, she could vanish. If she wished herself away, maybe things would turn out differently in her world. It certainly couldn't be worse! And even if it failed...then at least she wouldn't be _there_ , wouldn't be perfectly intact and whole while all of them were _gone_. She wouldn't have to live a lifetime knowing that everything and everyone she'd ever wanted to protect, everything she'd ever wanted to do...she failed.

She could wish for that, at least, couldn't she? She was in this dimension, and everything went wrong since she'd gone here. Clearly if she removed herself from it, then it would solve...it would do _something_.

The ground flashed golden around her, the air whistled, and then the relative darkness of the forest settled over the clearing again. Another wish granted. The dragon gone while she was still only thinking.

Probably...that was probably the moment the first sob broke free from her throat.

(*)

He...yeah, he'd never felt so confused or uncomfortable in his life.

For a bit there, he'd felt pretty irritated. After all the effort and the almost dying, they'd managed to get the dragonballs united, and despite talking to her just the other day about waiting a year for her own, for the sake of that kid and his village...she'd gone and demanded it _then_?

But...'bring them back' sure did seem to go along with 'they're gone', in the...vague breakdown she'd had during their visit to that fortune teller. If he were to bet (and he didn't, with women), it seemed like the two were probably the same. About when the dragon refused ...due to _distant dimensions_? Why weren't there instruction manuals about what the dragon could and couldn't do, anyway? If that were their actual wish, they'd all be pretty pissed after going through that trouble.

Except for her. Who definitely looked like she was suffering an emotional break instead. See, it was about _that time_ when the annoyance and confusion changed to discomfort. He just...wasn't really sure what to do about upset women. Especially not ones that upset who weren't his girlfriend and were absolutely right in front of his actual, very jealous, girlfriend.

It was something of a relief that Bulma still had enough awareness to actually make the wish they were supposed to wish (and pretty cleverly, by wishing for all innocent people killed by the red ribbon army to be revived, instead of just that one village) before that dragon got any more uppity and impatient about their lack of wishing. Which also seemed kind of rude, in the 'planned out a wish but can't get it' scenario.

Goku reached out to shake her shoulder lightly, trying to get her attention away from whatever horrible thing must have been playing out in her mind. Krillin stood a short distance from the two of them, watching with a grimace of discomfort and probably more sadness than the kid probably would have admitted to.

And...well, he probably wasn't any better than Pu'ar or Krillin. He didn't do anything except stare awkwardly at the pink woman either. What exactly _was_ a person supposed to do, anyway? He didn't even know what she was dealing with, other than...something _awful_.

Bulma suddenly appeared in his vision, storming across the area toward Sakura. Understandably, given the fact that the girl _tried_ to hijack a wish like that, but...she seemed to be suffering more than enough without one of Bulma's lectures added on top of it. He frowned and reached out for the blue haired woman. "Bulma, wait..."

She smacked his hand away and glared up at him. " _Back off_ , idiot!"

He winced and dropped his hand, grimacing between the two women. So Bulma was _that_ angry, huh?

His girlfriend stormed over to where the other woman knelt, ignoring Goku's attempts at comfort, crying in a way that really just felt too vulnerable and open for him to feel in any way comfortable or appropriate being nearby for. But, he couldn't just escape to somewhere more neutral and not full of unstable women, because if said unstable woman were to attack Bulma over her aggression, he'd have to stop her.

Ultimately, Bulma knelt down next to the woman, and pulled her into a hug instead. Which was...

Huh.

He blinked, and glanced over at Pu'ar and then Krillin. Just to silently confirm he hadn't just imagined that.

Nope. They seemed kind of surprised, and...on a second look, still there.

He rubbed at the back of his head. Yep. There was _definitely_ nothing he could do to help. And he was pretty sure it was about time to just go back to the house and ask what the _hell_ just happened after things calmed down once more.

That sounded like the best plan he'd come up with all day, in fact.

(*)

She'd felt a wide range of things since watching her best friends die, since realizing that all of her dreams of the world back home were nothing more than that...but she couldn't even identify what she felt anymore. Maybe she felt empty. Maybe she felt tired. She probably felt tired, at least.

She'd run out of tears, eventually. Then again, she was under the impression she'd run out before, too, so who the hell knew? She didn't. She didn't know _anything_. She didn't have a future. Her past was gone. She didn't have a home. She didn't have a family. She didn't have her friends.

Nothing... _Nothing_ could have prepared her for how alone she felt. Nothing seemed to mitigate it. She couldn't come up with a single _damn_ answer to make things better. If an all-powerful magic wish granting dragon couldn't bring back her world...what...would she even do?

What was she supposed to _do_?

She couldn't try to get home. Even if she waited, it didn't matter! There wasn't a home to return to! She couldn't bring Naruto and Sasuke back. She couldn't free the world without Naruto and Sasuke. Even if she wanted to, even if she _tried_ to seek revenge, how would she ever be able to defeat Kaguya?

It would only end in death. Trying to kill Kaguya would only mean she, too, would die.

She stared out through the window of the capsule home. Bulma had suggested she sit in the plush chair to relax and get rest, but she...didn't feel like sleeping. She didn't feel like doing _anything_. She wanted to cry again. She wanted to cry, because it was the only thing she ever _did_ do. It was familiar, and at least it was something. It was more than just living and pretending her life before waking up in this nightmare never existed.

She couldn't muster the energy for that, and simply stared out the window.

Voices drifted through the air, and she listened only because she couldn't be bothered not to.

"You're going to need to find your grandfather's dragonball again in a year, right?" Bulma must have been speaking to...Goku. Goku mentioned his grandfather and dragonballs at some point, hadn't he?

"Yeah...I guess so." He sighed. "I was gonna catch it!"

"Well, at least you're just looking for one next time, right?" Yamcha's voice sounded bracing and encouraging.

"Yeah, and what are the chances of some other group of crazies trying to catch them _again_?" Krillin. He sounded pretty hopeful.

"They _are_ able to grant any wish!" Pu'ar coughed then, and quickly spoke again. "A-almost any wish! I mean...they grant some of them!"

She didn't say anything. Correcting them didn't matter, anyway. She...

She honestly didn't know _what_ mattered at all, anymore.

(*)

So...he knew it was rude to think it, but honestly, the way Sakura acted was starting to creep him out. Then again, maybe it wasn't the way she acted that did it. She...she kind of acted pretty normally from what he'd gathered with that failed wish and everything else. Or she was crazy. _Dedicated crazy_.

But...that wasn't it. He knew it wasn't that, because the big...freaky...downright _terrifying_ dragon didn't tell her she couldn't wish back imaginary people. He said the people she was trying to wish back were in a different dimension. Like she insisted. Like he'd flat out ignored and refused to accept.

_Whatever_ it was that happened...

So...maybe he felt a little more guilty than creepy. It wasn't like he killed anyone! He didn't stop her from making any wishes, the dragon totally did that! And probably, it was that damn witch who made her believe whatever it was she believed. Somehow!

It kind of made him want to seek the old hag out and punch her. Whether or not it was true.

Hey, just because she told the truth about the dragonballs, maybe she did lie? It could have happened. And that...surprisingly, he actually felt a little more angry about that than anything else. He'd shook his head, and peeked around the corner at where she sat. At some point she must have finally fallen asleep. He didn't get to see her sleep all that often...but...she looked just as frail as she had the first day they'd found her.

She was...pretty frail for being someone who could just punch a boulder across a field like it was nothing.

And somewhere out there, somehow. In a dimension he still had trouble believing _existed_...she'd just lost all those family and friends she'd done nothing but fight to find a way back to since she'd gotten here. Maybe it was a little irrational, but he couldn't help but wonder...if he'd helped sooner, would she have gotten those dragonballs and sent herself back in time to...do something...?

Well...

No, couldn't be. She'd just have died, too. Probably. Whatever it was. If she could even go back that way.

He huffed softly. It kind of felt reassuring to think of that himself, but...it probably wouldn't do anything for her. After all, it didn't exactly fix the problem at all. He gave a soft sigh and turned back toward the makeshift bed they'd set up for him. (His bed was way better back home. He should have stayed there, honestly.)

He made it about three steps before an idea hit him. An idea that...actually kind of surprised him by how clever it was. Sure, he _still_ didn't really know for sure the details of what happened...but. Hey, it was _pretty cool_ as ideas went.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you know that the dragon can't grant wishes across dimensions? It's apparently true. It's also apparently true that Sakura literally, physically cannot seem to catch a break. I thought about including a little more in this chapter, but it felt a bit rushed to cram it into this chapter. Next time, Krillin's Bright Idea!
> 
> Merry Christmas! (it counts, I haven't slept yet.)


	66. Chapter 66

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She could feel an echo, a memory of the warmth she'd felt when she looked at the stars and imagined the ones at home. She remembered the satisfaction of seeing Naruto finally realize his dream, the tentative hope of Sasuke coming home and rebuilding Team 7.
> 
> She'd made herself imagine it all, and it was nothing more than the dream her family slowly died within.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unfortunately, the actual only answer to 'how do you follow up a cliffhanger like that' is 'with a completely underwhelming resolution'. But that would have spoiled it.
> 
> I mean, if you don't count the 'let's rewind and pretend that cliffhanger didn't happen' choice.

The morning went by quickly, the others a blur of indistinct motion. They took down the house, and then the others got into their plane. She didn't say anything on the flight back to Bulma's home, and Goku didn't say anything to her.

She couldn't tell how much time passed as they were riding, but by the time they arrived at West City the sun moved from morning to late afternoon. The little boy whose village had just been restored seemed ecstatic (and a good deal less worn and battered than he'd been the last time she saw him), and Goku wasted no time in offering him a ride home with his golden cloud.

Standing in the front lawn of the Capsule Corporation headquarters, watching the sun set behind mountains she'd recently been above...

It was easy to let her mind drift back to before going on her mission for the dragonballs. When she felt full of hope and anticipation. The world and home was only a short adventure away, her friends and family were safe and happy, maybe even happy enough that her presence wasn't even necessary or missed.

She could feel an echo, a memory of the warmth she'd felt when she looked at the stars and imagined the ones at home. She remembered the satisfaction of seeing Naruto finally realize his dream, the tentative hope of Sasuke coming home and rebuilding Team 7.

She'd made herself imagine it all, and it was nothing more than the dream her family slowly died within.

She curled her arms around herself against the cool night air, and dropped her gaze to the grass in front of her. The last flicker of the flame that warmed her only weeks ago, died. No matter how much she wanted it to change, no matter what she would do to trade her place with theirs, it wouldn't change a thing. She knew that. Even in a world that could wish away a war, she couldn't wish back the people and the things she wanted.

But...without that, what did she have?

What _was_ she?

Without her world, without her people, what kind of purpose did she have? A hopeless crusade of vengeance against a god-like being? Was that really all that was left? After so long, had the shinobi world been reduced to a girl looking for revenge?

Did _Naruto_ become nothing more than a memory to fuel a fire of revenge that would burn every last part of her up until nothing but ash remained?

A soft sound, a scoff, danced across the air into the night, carried away into the very wind that cast Naruto and Sasuke away. Why the hell would it even matter if she did? Not a single person remained to be disappointed, not a single person remained to be proud. Nothing remained, and _she_ didn't mean a thing.

The sound of the door echoed off of the walls behind her, and someone walked out in her direction.

She wanted to care. If she cared, if she could make the world around her matter, then she could find a purpose. But that was...

If she let go of the world she lost, no one would be left to care at all. Everyone she ever loved would have died, and no one would even care. Even if she could walk away, surely it would only make a monster out of her to go on living like she wasn't at fault, like she hadn't escaped and abandoned them. Even if she _could_ find something to hold on to and a direction to go in this world without looking back, she might as well have chosen their fate herself.

"He won't be back until tomorrow, right?" It was Krillin.

She wasn't really sure why he stayed here, instead of going back to his home already. Maybe he wanted to be sure the wish really worked. After all, he'd been skeptical of the possibility of magical wishes up until now. The dragon's presence itself might not have been enough.

She lifted her gaze to watch his.

He frowned after a moment, and glanced away from her in the direction Goku vanished. "I...I'm not really sure I understand what happened, but...I guess I can make a guess at it." He glanced up at her briefly, and then crossed his arms, uncomfortable either with whatever he was trying to communicate, or her own silence.

"I ...uh...it's just that I've got an idea."

She frowned, then. An idea? "Krillin...?"

"Hey..." He gave a weak laugh. "You spoke again. I'm, uh...doin' great already!" He trailed off and rubbed at the back of his neck, glancing off somewhere in the gathering darkness of dusk. "A-anyway, whatever it is you were trying to have granted, that dragon said he couldn't grant it because he couldn't reach there, right?"

She sighed, and crossed her arms. The frustration she felt at the world quite easily bled into irritation toward the one speaking to her. " _Krillin_."

"What if!" He spoke more quickly, lifting a hand to forestall...whatever it was he thought she was about to do. "What if...you were to summon the dragon in _that_ dimension? Wouldn't that solve the issue?"

Her hands fell to her sides, and she stared down at him, searching for some sort of appropriate answer. Or...reaction. Something. "...What?"

He grimaced, and shuffled. "Well...I mean. It's an idea, isn't it? _You_ got here without a wish, right? If you can cross back over somehow and take the dragonballs with you before you use them, then he'd be able to do whatever you wanted over there."

That...

That was...

A very distant, very, _very_ unlikely possibility. But it was _so much more_ than nothing.

He gave a very unreasonable - and a little bit terrified - yelp when she pulled him into a hug.

(*)

The determination in Sakura's eyes worried him considerably. The fact that he'd seen nothing but grief and hopelessness in them since her failed attempt at a wish the day before only worried him more. It wasn't like he _wanted_ to see her suffer. He wasn't that kind of a guy. Coming from a woman like Sakura, though, that kind of sudden determination wasn't generally a good thing.

Bulma didn't seem to be nearly as worried.

"Sakura?"

The pink haired woman walked toward the other, and he immediately felt himself tense. It wasn't likely the other would attack her _now_ , when Bulma had actually been...surprisingly sympathetic and supportive of the woman so far, for her attempted wish hijacking. (Sure, they could have wished the village back _anyway_ next year, but that'd be a hell of a pain. And unfair to that kid Upa.)

Still...that demeanor change had him on edge.

Ultimately, Sakura just stopped out of reach of the other woman. "Did you...still have plans to find a way back to my dimension with your science?"

Bulma blinked, and then gave a little shrug. "Well...yeah. I haven't been working on it though, since I've been helping you two with the dragonballs instead. But...those people you wanted to wish back. Are those the same people you wanted to go back to?"

Sakura's expression tightened slightly, and she dropped her head a moment, before she gave a short nod, and spoke in a quiet voice. "...They are."

"So..." Bulma frowned over at the other woman. "Even if I finished it-"

"I'll bring the dragonballs over there."

"You'll _what_?" He hadn't meant to get involved in the conversation if he didn't have to, but... _what_?

Krillin, who'd been lingering in the doorway, spoke up. "Well...it makes sense. If the dragon's power can't reach that far, if you summon it over there, the power would reach, right?"

Bulma hummed, and touched her chin. "...That's possible. If the power of the dragon works at _all_ over there."

Sakura lifted her head again, expression intense, brows dawn tight. "Why wouldn't it?"

"Well..." Bulma shook her head. "I guess it wouldn't matter. If the dragon or the dragonballs are giving the power, as long as both are over there it should work. But...it doesn't change what I said before, Sakura. What you're asking me to do is...it's _unheard of_. I don't even have theoretical research to go off of, I don't even have a verifiable _destination_."

"...I've got an idea for that one, actually."

Both of the women glanced toward him, and that part of his mind that still decided to stab him in the back every time he _needed_ to deal with a woman immediately regretted he spoke. "Er...well..." He coughed and scrubbed at his hair. Neither one of the women looked particularly patient. "It's just...uh. If you need to know where it is, you could just ask that fortune teller, right? She must be able to reach that dimension, right? And she's good with locations. If you need a destination, you could ask her."

Bulma blinked at him several times, and then sighed, placing her forehead in her hand. "... _Ugh_. That'll be another ten million zenni in smoke."

Krillin squinted, looking nervous over something. "You... _heh_...Are you gonna need to go right back out to do that, then?"

Bulma shook her head and waved her hand. "...No, I don't think so. Before I even think about where to _aim_ something, I've still got to come up with something to _aim_." She sighed after a moment, and placed her hand on her hip, gaze returning to Sakura. "I'm not joking. It's going to take years. It could take decades. There's just no way I can make it go any faster than that."

The pink haired woman crossed her arms and gave a small nod, gazing off somewhere in the room where...no one actually was. "Whatever it takes. I'll do whatever it takes."

...A part of him wondered whether, if everyone was wrong, it would be better to ask the fortune teller ahead of time, or if it was better to let her live in hope, even if it was false.

Honestly...that just wasn't something a bandit like him could say.

(*)

"Ugh...why did I agree to this...?" The smaller boy grumbled behind her, hands gripping onto her arms with understandable ferocity.

"Oolong crashed your helicopter!" Goku said it...quite cheerily.

Admittedly, it might have been easier for Krillin if she weren't also taking up space on the cloud, but...going back with Goku to the house she'd waited in before felt like...something. She couldn't do anything to help Bulma, and the books the woman had thrown at her when she'd hung around too closely might as well have been written in some language she didn't understand.

It probably wasn't inaccurate to say that's exactly what they were.

Still, staying in that house for decades was...not...it wasn't something that felt right. She didn't know what felt right, but waiting there would only make it worse, and do nothing toward finding an answer for how she could stop Kaguya from killing everyone again as soon as she brought people back. She hadn't thought about it when she made the wish, because she hadn't thought about _anything_.

Now...

Bringing everyone back, finding a way to _get_ there so that she could use the magical dragon to bring back everything she lost, that was only a partial solution. She didn't know what she would do if she ever had to watch Naruto and Sasuke die again.

Maybe it was impossible to ever become strong enough to deal with Kaguya herself. But...in a decade, if it would really take so long, maybe...something in this world might actually provide her with the ability to _help_. If she could help them, instead of standing on the sidelines wishing that she could do something, then she could make _sure_ that they wouldn't die. Even if it meant trading her life for theirs in the end.

They would _win_.

Undoing everything that went wrong and setting right all that she had failed was a purpose. No matter how shaky and distant that hope was...she _had to_ hold on to it.

The small island with the familiar pink house rose up to meet them, and Krillin was only too happy to scramble free from the cloud to the sand. Compared to the pressed and manicured way he'd looked when he first left with them, he looked a little bit like he'd gone through a war, not an empty fortress and a desert.

"Remind me to say 'no' next time you guys want to drag me on an adventure."

She squinted down at him as Goku dropped to the ground as well. "You're the one who wanted to go."

"Yeah, well. I'll remind _myself_ it's a bad idea to go anywhere with you guys the next time _that_ happens."

"What's the commotion out there?" The old man peered out through the door for a moment, before his expression brightened. "Ah. Goku, Krillin! You're back, huh?" He paused a moment, before glancing over at her. "Sakura, too."

"Yeah!" Goku nodded. "The dragonballs are gone again, so I wanna get more training for the next tournament!"

"...Me too, actually." Krillin shrugged. "I gotta get ready for the next tournament, too."

"Hmph. Well. I already told you I can't help you any more, Goku." He scratched his beard absently. "...Didn't I? You'll have to learn on your own now. Expand your horizons! There's more you'll learn out there than I can ever teach you."

"Wha..." Goku drooped his shoulders. "Aw..."

"So...are the two of you still traveling together?" The old master turned his gaze to her again.

She...didn't really have any plans. "Why?"

The man stuck one hand in his pocket, and leaned on the strange cane of his. "Well...I don't have anything more to teach you, either. Not until you've learned to master your ki. Go out into this world and _experience it_. Don't just fly over it thinking of that other world of yours. Once you do that...only then will you be able to manipulate your ki properly."

Goku glanced up at her briefly, and then gave a little shrug. "Okay! We'll go adventuring together then! Come on, Nimbus!"

The old man's cane smacked the ground. "No! If you want to grow, you'll have to do it on foot now! Running and swimming! No more flying!"

" _Eh_?!" He stared back at Roshi, and then up at her as if looking for support. But...well, it wasn't _wrong_. And they weren't in any hurry to go anywhere. After a moment, he gave a sigh of defeat and started off toward the water, kicking off his shoes. "I'll see you next tournament!"

Without any further hesitation, the small boy dove into the water surrounding the island and shot off with impressive speed across the water.

Krillin scoffed after a moment. "That guy...you should get going before he leaves you behind and forgets you're traveling together or something."

That was...somewhat unlikely. Still. She summoned a small smile for him all the same, and a wave. Thanks to him, at least...she knew what she'd be running toward. And that made it worth running.

That, and the clattering crashes she heard behind her on the island the when she ran off _on top_ of the water.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THAT SAGA WAS ALMOST FIFTY CHAPTERS LONG AND I CUT OUT LARGE PORTIONS OF IT.
> 
> Originally, the discussion between Krillin and Sakura was going to be last chapter, but it felt too cheap to introduce a problem and give a potential resolution in literally the same chapter. Also it was getting long, anyway. This one is extra long, but it's the end of the quest for dragonballs and the red ribbon saga!
> 
> Ah, what fun there is in store for the future.


	67. Chapter 67

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He squinted up at the sun in the sky. Summer was not his favorite season of the year. Living out in the wilderness and the desert didn't build up a lot of fondness for the hottest, driest season of the year, after all. He disliked it even more, now.

Eventually they did stop running. The difference in training wasn't significant enough to keep going without any reason to run forever. There wasn't really anywhere to _go_. It was a little frustrating to be wandering aimlessly because she couldn't do anything more significant to help get herself back to her dimension...but it was an opportunity to strengthen herself.

Three days passed as they walked toward the east. To her, it felt like she was starting to get a stronger grasp on the concept of manipulating ki. She didn't know that it would ever give her the power to help face Kaguya, but it was a path to travel down and improve herself with. Until there was a better option presented than to continue her master's training and attempting to learn ki, she'd continue to press onward with both.

Goku, likewise, got closer to securing the bell from her. He'd learned well from his training with Korin, and it required much more effort from her to stay out of his reach and keep the bell out of his hand. It was admirable to see how quickly he'd improved. It had barely been...two months, perhaps? Since she'd given him the challenge, he'd improved so much.

It reminded her of how quickly Naruto and Sasuke would leap ahead in their training. Every time she'd almost catch up to them, they would leap ahead of her with ease that seemed unbelievable.

Perhaps a part of her sought to get so strong simply out of the belief that if she did so, when the dragon returned Naruto and Sasuke, they would become strong enough on their own to destroy Kaguya. If nothing else, then at least she'd support them that way.

A young girl's scream cut through the silence of the afternoon, and both of them broke into a run.

Fortunately, it wasn't a long distance away, and just over the next hill revealed a little girl in the clutches of a huge tiger-like man.

" _Hey_!" Goku shouted, running ahead of her. "You let her go!"

The man hesitated, and turned a slow glance toward both of them. His upper lip, oddly shaped as it was, curled into a sneer, revealing wicked looking teeth. " _More_ food? So much of you all at once, I wonder if I've forgotten my own birthday."

She grit her teeth as his laughter filled the air. The little girl was so small, head clutched in a powerful, clawed head. If they weren't careful-and quick-the creature would surely kill her in an instant.

_Damn it_...

She took a step forward just as Goku leaped through the air. Headfirst.

That hard head of his rammed right into the large man's gut. The brittle looking armor he wore shattered from the impact, and the tiger-man doubled over, stumbling backward and dropping the little girl in the process. She sprinted across the distance immediately, gathering up the little girl before the man could try to re-capture his hostage.

"Ugh...little brat!" The cat gave a feral roar, and lifted a hand full of claws. The girl in her arms gave a frightened scream and hid her face in her chest. Goku jumped into the air again, and delivered an open handed strike right into the middle of the cat's face.

" _Paper_! Hah!"

The cat tumbled head over heels backward several feet, and then crashed into a great stone...throne behind him. The platform cracked and jostled perilously, but ultimately remained standing. The same couldn't be said of the large man, who unrolled and splayed out on the ground, unconscious.

The little girl gave a small gasp, and stared down at Goku with wide eyes.

"That's...amazing...! You're amazing!"

Goku blinked, and looked up at the girl. "Huh? No...that guy was just really weak." He giggled and grinned at her instead. "He wasn't nearly as tough as you are, Sakura!"

She scoffed, and set the girl down. "Hey, what were you doing out here? It's dangerous to wander the wilderness all alone."

The little girl's expression fell, and she dropped her head, clasping her hands together. "But...but I had to! I wanted to find the great Tiger Thief and hire him to save my village. But...but..." She gave a small sniffle and wiped at her eye. "I didn't have enough money, so he wouldn't do it. And then he said he was hungry and I'd make a good meal and-"

"It's okay!" Goku nodded, planting his hands on his hips. "He's not gonna wake up for a while."

The little girl bit her lip, expression a mix of apprehensiveness and hope, before she finally spoke. "You're...so strong...can't _you_ help my village? Please, I know I don't have much, but we'll pay you what we can!"

Ah...now...this was the sort of thing she was used to. Generally, she didn't just pick up an assignment or job from a random person, given it was the village's responsibility to dole out missions according to those best fit for each, but...still. She'd trained under the hokage long enough to find it familiar.

"What are we saving your village from? Where is it?"

The girl's eyes widened in hope again as she looked up, and then she gave a determined nod to her self before responding. "My village is just a short distance from here! Please, you have to come and help us! Two terrible people are there, and they've taken over everything! They make us do work for them and feed them, and if anyone tries to stop them, they devour them with their magical gourd! Please, oh please help us! I don't know what we'll do if someone doesn't stop them!"

Devouring people with a magical gourd...? That sounded...much more dangerous than anything they'd encountered so far. She glanced over at Goku, but he simply looked determined. As he would, she supposed.

"Alright. Take us to your village. While we go, try to tell us as much as you can about these two people, alright? Do you know how the gourd works?"

The girl nodded. "Uh huh! If they call your name and you don't respond 'here!' in time, it eats you up and you never ever come back."

She frowned. That could be _very_ dangerous...but being new in town would help that. Without their names, the trick wouldn't be able to work.

"Then we'll just break it!" Goku nodded with determination. "And then we'll beat them up!"

"Do you know who these people are?"

The little girl shook her head. "They're bandits who appeared one day. I...I think they call themselves Ginkaku and Kinkaku."

Her footsteps immediately stopped.

(*)

He squinted up at the sun in the sky. Summer was not his favorite season of the year. Living out in the wilderness and the desert didn't build up a lot of fondness for the hottest, driest season of the year, after all. He disliked it even more, now.

The heavy shell on his back must have increased the temperature by fifty degrees, and if it by itself didn't, the skipping and hopping he did certainly increased it sixty.

He sighed as he flopped back in the hammock, a welcome break from the endless morning of training. No matter what, though...this would be worth it. Getting the opportunity to train under Muten Roshi didn't come by every day. If not for Krillin putting in a good word (probably motivated at least a little bit by loneliness once Sakura and Goku went off on their own training) he probably never would get the chance at all.

Well...he wouldn't put it to waste. He'd seen now the results of this training. It was greater than he would have ever imagined.

Three years.

In three years, he intended to be able to face Goku again, like he had when they first met.

This next time...he'd definitely win.

(*)

She felt tense. The two names...experience told her that it _couldn't_ be. It _never_ had been.

Yet...what if it were? The two monsters who had killed the second Hokage, two who were brought back by the Edo Tensei and caused so many injuries, could it be at all possible? What if the ninja tool she'd heard was captured from them might actually be able to transport people to this dimension?

Could they actually have a mate in this one?

No...no, that just wasn't possible. She shook her head as they walked into the village proper.

Some sort of gathering seemed to be forming in the center of the village as they approached, and two figures stood on a hastily made wooden platform above them. Almost certainly the two were the ones the little girl - Chao, she'd said - was talking about. She'd never witnessed the real Ginkaku and Kinkaku herself. Could they...be?

"Oh no!" Chao gasped and scurried ahead. "I have to hurry! It's the roll call!"

"Roll call?" Goku squinted up at her in confusion.

She placed a hand on her hip, making her way closer to the crowd just so that they wouldn't stand out as much as outsiders. "It must be a way to make sure no one tries to run away. Call their name every day, and if they don't answer because they're not there..."

"Oh..." Goku scowled in frustration. "That's _terrible_..."

"Please, no!" An older woman cried out in desperation. "Please, I'll do anything!"

The red haired man, taller than the green haired one, chuckled. He sounded entirely too pleased with himself. "Didn't you say that yesterday? And yet you only gave us two barrels of biscuits!"

"I...I didn't have any more flour...please, I gave you everything!"

Her hand clenched at her side. Between the two men, a tall gourd not unlike Gaara's. It looked...similar to one of the tools that she'd seen, as well. But...was it? She couldn't remember which tool had done what, given that she'd only glimpsed them in passing. If she destroyed it, would it break the jutsu?

"Do I need to say your name instead?" The green haired man cackled. "After all, don't you trust us? All we're asking for is the name! We won't use it. This time."

The louder one spoke up again, as she started to weave her way into the crowd. The closer she was, the easier it would be to strike before they could protect it. "Or would you rather we take your husband _now_?"

The woman gave a terrified sound. "I-I..." For a moment, silence fell on the crowd. "His name...His name is Chensei, but please...please, you _couldn't_ hurt him! He's only a baby! He wouldn't be able to answer!"

"Really?" The green man looked genuinely surprised for a moment. Once he started to laugh, however... _she had enough_.

" _Hey_!" Goku, actually, was the one to shout.

She chose to burst out of the crowd while the men scanned the area in confusion. "The two of you could never have defeated the Second Hokage." Really, targeting an infant, as it was clear they were about to, proved it. The Second would never have been defeated by anyone who needed to resort to such horrible tactics.

She knew. She'd watched first hand how amazing the Second Hokage was in battle.

That meant...these two weren't from her world, and they were nothing more than another horrible reminder of a home far out of her reach. She cracked her knuckles as Goku appeared next to her.

Goku pointed up at the taller one. "I wanna fight the red one."

Well...the green one pissed her off more, so that worked out fine. She gave a little shrug. "Just be careful."

The two men looked between each other in confusion and then back to them. "Wh...who are you? Where have you come from?!"

Before she could respond, Goku did. "I'm Goku! And this is-"

"No!" Chao gave a distressed cry from the crowd. "You can't let them know your names!"

Goku actually grinned in response to the shout. "I'm not worried about that! I'm gonna beat them up before they can do anything!"

Which...well, they were somewhat forced to do now that the two men knew at least one of their names. Goku spared just another moment for an excited grin, and then he jumped up toward the taller man, drawing his red staff to block a down swing of the man's sword.

She didn't get a chance to witness any more of the battle, however, as the green man took the opportunity to jump toward her, slicing his own blade through the air.

She fell backward out of range, and the crowd behind her scattered, taking the opportunity to flee from the battle before the danger refocused on them.

Her suspicion about the men was confirmed. He nearly tumbled over himself when he missed her, and his recovery was painfully slow. His reflexes were as good or better than any of the men she'd encountered in the world short of the man that nearly killed Goku in the forest...but that really wasn't saying much.

Really, she could only hope that Goku was a little better matched with his opponent, because he seemed so excited, it would be a little disappointing for him if they were no more of a fight than the tiger-man. She twisted her body to dodge another wild swing, and then slapped the man across the hand. The blade skittered across the dirt path of the village, and the man clutched his wrist in pain, stumbling away from her.

"Agh...how did you...?" He grit his teeth and looked up at her with wild, wary eyes.

"You picked on helpless civilians, mothers and their children, because you don't have the power to stand up to anyone else, right? And there's no one around out here to stop you, so you just did what you wanted. There's no law and no rules if no one's watching and no one's making you listen." She scowled down at him in irritation, and grabbed the collar of his shirt, lifting him up by it. "That kind of thing...it really _pisses me off_!" She slammed him down into the ground. The ground cracked and he gave a pained, choking cough.

He certainly wouldn't be getting up and terrorizing anyone again any time soon.

Which meant that Goku, probably, was just about done with his fight, too.

She looked up toward him just in time to see Goku, engulfed in pink mist, vanish into that gourd that stood on the platform.

_What...?_

For a moment, she stood in frozen horror, as the small figure vanished from sight.

Forever.

" _Goku_!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there's a few episodes from Dragonball I really like. Which are pretty appropriate for the story.
> 
> How about that?


	68. Chapter 68

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For a few moments, the village around her fell silent. The villagers huddled in their homes. The man's laughter died out as his gaze fell on his fallen comrade. The wind that blew through the wilderness stilled.
> 
> Goku wasn't there to say a word.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I decided to re-read the whole fic, go over for some errors, and make sure I knew any plot threads I set up. The Red Ribbon saga was so long, I wanted to make sure I was ready before we get in to another long saga.
> 
> Which isn't quite yet.

Her heart lurched so painfully she was sure it would rip right out of her chest. At some point her hand had outstretched, as if she could have grabbed him and stopped him from being pulled in. Her extended hand trembled as the man laughed, and she stared at the gourd where Goku simply vanished. In the end, they hadn't asked Chao very much about the gourd. For different reasons, they'd both been more interested in the men who held it.

Still, the girl had been adamant that those who were captured by it never returned.

For a few moments, the village around her fell silent. The villagers huddled in their homes. The man's laughter died out as his gaze fell on his fallen comrade. The wind that blew through the wilderness stilled.

Goku wasn't there to say a word.

_Fury.  
_

Fury burned through her body and mind, fueled by the building grief and pain, and an anguished scream tore from her throat. It sounded strange to her own ears, but she had no time to think on the matter. It _hurt_ too much to think.

She charged toward the taller man, still atop the platform where he'd been calling out names. Her fingers curled into claws, as another hand joined the one that reached for Goku, intent on pummeling the red haired man, whichever his name happened to be. She...she'd tear him apart, make him _suffer_ for taking away the little boy who'd only wanted to be stronger. For tearing away the only thing she had _left_ to protect.

Briefly, she saw the man's expression turn from confusion and concern to shock as she approached him, but she moved _far_ too quickly for him to make any attempt to flee or defend himself. Her hands seized his arms, gripping tight and as unbreakable as steel. Tearing him in half would take a moment, a fraction of her strength, and be far too easy.

A familiar voice shouted out in irritation from somewhere behind her.

" _Hey! Don't steal mine_!"

She...blinked, momentum stalled in surprise, and the man's terrified expression flickered from her to over her shoulder.

"Go..." She turned her head in the direction of the voice, meeting the annoyed gaze of...the very one she'd seen vanish into smoke a moment ago. To that place he was never, ever supposed to return from. "...ku?"

He huffed loudly, looking as annoyed as she'd ever seen him, and tapped his foot. "You're taking my turn again aren't you? You do it _every time_!"

She released the man, and he scrambled immediately backward, rubbing frantically at his arms as she spun away from him back toward Goku. "You...were..."

He puffed out his chest and thumped his fist against himself. "I caught myself on the walls of the jar with the power pole and then jumped back out! No way I'd let a weird thing like like that _eat me_!"

That was...possible? Just jumping back out? That mist wouldn't just drag someone back in who escaped?

Well, obviously it was. Goku stood in front of her without any trace of the pink mist as proof of it. Of course...clearly it wasn't the same tool that she'd heard about. She'd determined that before. So...there wasn't actually any telling what it was and wasn't capable of. All the word they'd had on it, after all, was from a small child.

He spun the red pole of his and stuck it behind his back as he wandered back up to where she stood. "But he's still mine! I'm definitely not beaten yet, and I'm not _gonna_ be!"

Her hands shook as she kept her hands and arms carefully at her sides while he made his way closer to her again, resisting the urge to hug the small boy in the middle of a village, in front of the other bandit who had been terrorizing it. It wasn't really the time for that sort of thing, and she hadn't exactly done that before now anyway.

Instead, she simply shook her head and looked away from him quickly. Before he could get any ideas about why her eyes looked red. He was probably too distracted by his impending fight to notice anything, but...still. She'd done enough of crying in front of him. In front of anyone, really. Eventually...she'd...

She coughed and planted a hand on her hip, forcing her tone to a level of flippancy. "I'm gonna make a rule about knock-outs and disqualification if you keep up almost dying. I can't tell when you're out of the fight when you do that."

He laughed at her, and started toward the man who'd now backed away from both of them nearly off of the platform. After a moment, Goku hesitated, and lifted the gourd himself from where the man had dropped it. She didn't remember _when_ that was, but it must have happened some time before Goku escaped?

"Hey. If I said your name, you'd get sucked into here too, right?"

The man lifted a pacifying arm toward Goku. "N-now, let's not get-"

"Ginkaku!"

A moment of silence passed. The tall man's face scrunched up in fear momentarily, and then relaxed in relief immediately afterward. After the moment passed, however, his eyes widened again, and he gave a distressed shout. " _Ginkaku_ -!"

A soft wind brushed by her ear, pink mist swirled over her shoulder, and the man she'd incapacitated earlier disappeared into the gourd.

"Oh. So that's what it looks like." Goku stared down at the gourd in his hand for a moment, expression thoughtful, before he looked up at the other man. "Kinkaku!"

"H... _Here_!" For a large man with a menacing and deep voice, his voice could apparently go quite high under the right circumstances.

Goku gave a childish laugh, and then pointed at the man. "Kinkaku!"

Kinkaku responded immediately, concern over the fate of his partner fading quickly back into one of apprehension and terror.

"Lift your arms over your head!"

Kinkaku's arms immediately lifted over his head, palms facing outward. "P-Please now..."

"Hop on one foot!"

The tall man frowned in indignation and pointed toward Goku. " _That's_ -"

" _Kinkaku!_ "

The man yelped, and made a rushed and awkward attempt to hop in place, his bulk making the action...difficult. Once again Goku called his name, and the man struggled to respond while continuing to jump.

She frowned, and walked up to the young boy, who still seemed _entirely_ too amused. As much as she could understand the desire for justice, after what they'd done and after Goku nearly..

Still. He was getting carried away. "Goku..."

"It's not funny when _you_ have to do it, huh?" Goku held the gourd in his hand up high above his own head for a few moments, before he flung it to the ground. The fragile container shattered on impact, sending yellow-orange fragments flipping violently through the air and spinning wildly across the wooden platform. The clear liquid it carried splattered wildly across the raised platform and splashing across both of their feet. The liquid was as thin and weightless as water, and warm from the heat of the sun that probably shone on the wilderness too often.

"Y-you..." The man stared down at the shattered gourd, a mixture of confusion and despair written across his features, stumbling back a few more steps. " _Why_...?"

"I don't need a dumb trick like that to beat you." Goku gripped his fist in front of him. "I'm gonna beat you fair and square the normal way! Then when I'm done, you'll apologize to everyone here that you've hurt and _never_ do it again!"

"I..." The man stuttered, gaze flickering between the ruined gourd and Goku. " _I'm sorry_!" He immediately dropped to his knees and huddled his hands over his head. "I'm so very sorry, I'll never do it again!"

It wasn't the most convincing display of honest regret.

Goku stared down at Kinkaku in confusion for a few moments and glanced between her and the man. "Uh...? I haven't even beat you up yet, though."

She had a feeling his statement was less a statement of disbelief than disappointment, considering how enthusiastic he was about fighting the man. He, perhaps, should have tried imparting his lesson about terror _after_ fighting the other man a bit longer. But then, if the man's abilities were as pathetic as the one whom she'd fought, it probably would have been a let down and a bit of a waste of his time anyway.

She gave a little shrug, and he gave another huff of annoyance.

"...Well, either way he _can't_ use the gourd anymore. You broke it." Which didn't mean that he couldn't harm the villagers. She very much doubted that they simply found the tool while they were honest and upstanding citizens, and without it they-or he, as the case now was-would go back to that honest and simple life without it.

She placed her hands on her hips and glared down at Kinkaku, advancing a few steps toward him. "What you'll do instead is submit yourself to the village's judgment. Imprisonment, labor, or banishment. If you break, or even _try_ to break, their rules we'll know immediately. Just like we found you this time, we'll find you next time. No matter what you try to do to hide from us. And next time, you won't get the _chance_ to apologize."

(*)

The village was surprisingly forgiving, for having an unknown number of their population taken away by the two terrors. They'd simply determined that Kinkaku would be forced to repay all of the work they'd been forced to do by he and Ginkaku. Considering how much work she'd heard mentioned as the villagers spoke among themselves, though, it was likely he'd be doing errands for the village for the rest of his life.

While neither she nor Goku actually carried a phone, she did have Bulma's number memorized from the month they'd stayed in Capsule Corporation's headquarters. It'd been repeated so often, it would have been almost impossible for her _not_ to memorize it. One way or another, if they contacted Bulma when Kinkaku tried anything, they'd find out. Or Yamcha would, and he'd be more than enough to deal with someone like that weakling.

From there, the rest of that particular strip of wilderness lacked any significant population. Occasionally she spotted traces of civilization, campsites, trails which led off somewhere behind rugged looking mountains, but nothing of any significance or size that would indicate villages of a similar size to the one they'd left behind. Where the two bandits even came from...well, they probably could have asked before leaving the village, but she hadn't thought of asking much more about them at the time. Goku had been eager to move on once he figured out what would happen to the red-haired bandit, and she wasn't that inclined to stay in the village any longer either.

Ginkaku and Kinkaku, with a gourd that could eat people.

They weren't anything to do with the Gold and Silver brothers that she knew of in her own world, and the gourd was far from what she'd heard of the powerful ninja tool, either. Yet...the similarities...she couldn't make herself let go of them completely.

Some small, lingering part of her still wanted to discover _why._

It didn't matter, because...she couldn't reach that world, and even if she could, it was as empty and lifeless as the wilderness that stretched on around them in every direction. As silent as the emptiness that settled upon the village before Goku returned.

There weren't any connections left to find between the two worlds. One day...in the future, she'd find her way back, she'd collect those golden orbs and save all of the people whose hopes fell on her, all of the people she'd failed so far. One day, she'd make it _worthwhile_ that she walked through this wilderness alone, that she lived in a real world and still had people to protect and they couldn't.

One day, she would bring Team Seven back together again, and make _sure_ they never shattered again.

For now...

All she could do was walk forward.

But...

If every step brought her one step closer to the ones who needed her...

She'd take however many as she needed to.

 


	69. Chapter 69

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A branch snapped just over her head. She spun in place, lifting her kunai over her head in an instant. Wood clashed against metal, sparking through the air past an errant lock of pink hair, and a small body crashed into her. She fell to her back heavily and kicked into the midsection of her attacker, sending the figure flipping and rolling across the grass away from her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was necessary for last chapter to be a little short, because starting this chapter in the middle of the last one wouldn't have worked very well. Terror and Plague was probably the chapters with the most Yuffie and Vincent syndrome when it came to Sakura, but that's mostly because the purpose for her there had very little to do with the action.

Grass bent slightly under her feet, bouncing back a moment later, as she carefully avoided the fallen twigs and leaves on the ground. Shadows of branches and leaves passed across her face in an ever-changing pattern as she raced through the forest, and sunlight glinted off of flashes of metal at her waist.

The birds in the forest were silent, and wildlife scattered a few miles out.

The lack of them made her more than a little concerned.

A branch snapped just over her head. She spun in place, lifting her kunai over her head in an instant. Wood clashed against metal, sparking through the air past an errant lock of pink hair, and a small body crashed into her. She fell to her back heavily and kicked into the midsection of her attacker, sending the figure flipping and rolling across the grass away from her.

A short distance away, it smashed into a nearby tree, cracking and splintering the trunk where it collided, and then crumpled to the ground.

She panted and rolled onto her stomach, pulling herself up to her feet.

The figure pulled itself shakily to its knees, and then stumbled up to its feet, hair hanging in disarray and obscuring her view of its face.

A triumphant chuckle broke the silence of the forest, and his face turned up toward her, grinning wide. Between teeth flecked with wood, grass, and dirt, hung one shiny bell on frayed string.

" _I did it!_ "

She rolled her eyes and wandered over to where he still giggled, rapping the top of his head with her knuckles. "You got kicked into a tree."

"Heheh." He rubbed at his head and spat the bell into his free hand. "But I still got it!"

She examined her nails, as if she hadn't heard him (or seen the bell at all).

"You've gotta train me now, right?" He was, unsurprisingly, completely unfazed by her act. If he actually noticed it at all. His fists clenched in front of him and he grinned up at her, eyes glittering in excitement. "You _promised_!"

"Did I?" She hummed apathetically, starting off in the direction she'd been running before.

" _Hey!_ You _said-"_

"We'll start it tomorrow." She glanced over her shoulder toward him, offering him a little amused smile. With the amount of time that he'd spent nagging her for training when he couldn't get the bell from her, he deserved at least a little bit of teasing about it once he succeeded.

The trees broke away ahead of them, opening up to a winding dirt path at the edge of a cliff.

Their position at the edge of the high cliff afforded a _beautiful_ view. Below, the forest stretched onward even more dense than behind them, encircled in a valley of low-lying mountains. In the distance, just as the forest spilled out into flatland, a tall castle stood above the trees.

"...That's interesting."

"Huh?" Goku broke from the trees behind her a moment after she spoke, walking up next to her. "Oh! A castle!"

It looked out of place, like the tall pillar that led to Korin. Most of what she'd seen in this world held a much different kind of architecture. That castle looked more like something she would have expected to see in her own world, not this one.

"Let's go take a look at it."

He nodded in excitement and raced up to the edge of the cliff, leaping off as he had back on the island the old man took them to. He vanished into the trees a moment after she leaped after him. As before, it was a matter of finding the right angle to connect her feet to the side of the cliff, and the right amount of chakra to slow her fall without stopping her completely. Branches cracked and snapped as Goku bounced and flipped through trees to slow his fall instead. The landing was good, but he needed to learn how to scale such cliffs without the aid of trees or a golden flying cloud. Just in case.

While the trees were densely packed, there was a curious lack of undergrowth. Along with that, as they ran through the forest, she spotted very few animals. Did it have something to do with the castle up ahead, or was it a regional issue? Times like these, at least, she missed when Goku's other friends traveled with them searching for the dragonballs. Bulma or Yamcha probably would have known better what significance the castle might have had.

The trees thinned out ahead of them, and eventually they broke away into a clearing too small to have been noticed from where they were above. A small...hamlet sat in the middle of the the forest, in the shadow of the large castle ahead. It bore no signage outside it, but the buildings looked well maintained enough to be currently inhabited, despite the lack of anyone inside.

She frowned as she started toward the grouping of houses, hands hanging at her sides.

"I wonder if anyone's home?" Goku hummed in curiosity as he walked after her.

"There must be someone..." Although, it seemed they were inside.

She glanced across each of the round buildings as they walked. Unlike the castle up ahead, these buildings were more like what she was used to seeing in this world. As she walked, the slope of the ground shifted slightly, unnaturally.

A trap.

She jumped backward just as a spear flew through the air where she'd stood a moment ago. Branches snapped, and she spun in place, drawing a kunai and knocking a rain of other spears away. Behind her, she heard metal colliding with wood, as Goku must have knocked away a batch of spears from where he was as well.

So...

_Unfriendly_.

" _Hey_!" Goku shouted. "What's the big idea? We're not doing anything!"

She frowned up at the trees a moment, before glancing around the village. Despite the trap going off, there weren't any sounds. In a far away building, she caught a glint of metal from inside one of the windows. "It probably wasn't aimed at us."

"What?"

She placed a hand on her hip as she continued to scan the group of houses. "Like the one in the pirate cove last year. I think it was set for _anyone_ walking in here."

He frowned up at her and then across the houses. " _Why_?"

"I'm not sure. Let's ask." She marched on ahead through the street, careful not to trip over any other traps as she walked. The glint in the window of the house she targeted vanished a few moments before they made it to the door.

She lifted her hand and rapped on the door.

Naturally, no one responded. As if she hadn't looked directly at their telescope.

"You can open up and answer my questions, or I can break your door and _then_ we'll ask you questions."

If they had many answers, anyway. Who knew. Going up to that castle might have given them the answers they were looking for. Or the castle might have been the cause of the paranoia that the villagers here clearly experienced. It didn't really matter, given how fearful the people were, she doubted she'd need to follow through on her threat.

"You...don't need to do that." A voice from behind her, that of an old man, spoke.

She turned a moment after Goku did. A frail older man, one who reminded her somewhat of the village elder who they'd rescued from the tower, stood in front of a nearby building. His expression was nervous, but there was a hard determination in his dark eyes as he looked between them.

"Oh, hey! There _are_ people here!"

She frowned over at the man. "It's unusual to have traps waiting in a village that's already hidden in a forest."

The man sighed, and shook his head. "...The both of you should leave while you still can."

"What?" Goku glanced up at her, and then shifted slightly as if he expected another attack. "Does that mean you're gonna fight us?"

The man blinked, and shook his head quickly. "Of...of course not! But the demons will attack you when night falls. You must go back from where you came while you still have time."

"Demons?" She glanced down at Goku, who looked up at her in brief surprise.

He frowned a moment, and turned a curious expression to the older man. "So...if we wait here, there _will_ be people who wanna fight us?"

" _Fight_?" He shook his head quickly. "They...they aren't people! They're horrible monsters! They'll capture you, bring you back to their world and kill you. Or worse!"

To their 'world'?

If she learned anything in her time here, it was too much to hope for that world to have anything to do with her own, but...if there were a remote possibility of some other form of world-travel, then it might at least help Bulma with her research.

"...What do you think, Goku?"

He gripped his hands in fists. "It sounds like people I wanna fight!"

The man scoffed in disbelief. "Didn't you two hear me? They're beyond any human! If you fight them, the both of you would _surely_ die."

She glanced down at Goku a moment more, and then offered the man a small, amused smile.

(*)

It took surprisingly little convincing to get the man to agree to take them to the king of the land. Who, apparently, was the one that lived in the nearby castle. He couldn't take them to the portal without permission, he'd said, and people as strong as them might be able to help more if they spoke with the king.

They'd spent most of the rest of the day waiting on an audience with that king, who had been busy with...something no one felt inclined to share. Goku, at least, hadn't minded the wait: the castle wasn't unfriendly, at least, and as soon as his stomach started to growl, they'd been escorted to a table with food, where he'd eaten his fill.

_Unsurprisingly_ , the king needed more convincing than the man to get him to consider their interest in fighting the 'demons' that attacked the village and castle. By the time they'd finally gotten the monarch's consent, the sun already sank beneath the horizon and bathed the forest below in darkness.

The king led both of them out to a balcony, finally, and looked out at the forest below. In the distance, some sort of bone horn rang out over the trees, and a distant din of snarls and roars echoed off of the surrounding mountains.

"As you can hear..." The regal man sighed, and leaned on the edge of the balcony. "The demons run roughshod over my land now that they've forced the doorway open. My people are terrified, they hunt and take our harvest, and...just two nights ago...they came to this very castle in the night and took my daughter, the princess."

"Took her?" She glanced from the king to the noise in the forest below. "Did they bring her back to their world, then?"

He nodded. "For what purpose, none of us know. All who went after her to try to bring her back were immediately ejected, badly wounded. I fear to send others, lest they never return at all."

There were many reasons to kidnap a princess...but given the world she knew here, most of those reasons would serve people little purpose. Which was...somewhat worrying for the fate of the lost princess. She placed her hands on her hips as she looked down at the forest. Goku stood near her, expression scrunched up in annoyance.

"Then it's settled. The two of us will drive the demons off, and bring her back."

"Yeah!" Goku nodded firmly. "We'll beat 'em all up until they never come back and hurt anyone here again!"

The man gave a heavy sigh. "As powerful as the two of you have shown yourselves to be...even you may find yourselves at your limit facing the Demon King."


	70. Chapter 70

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Beyond those gates...is the domain of the Demon King Shula."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew. An inventory day, sprained ankle, sickness, pneumonia, and a holiday later I finally have time for another chapter!
> 
> ...Yeah, okay, I totally lost track of time there for a while. And this saga is not the easiest to write, lemme tell ya.

She'd heard of quite a few 'demons' before, but a _king_ of them, that would be new. Although, she hadn't seen many kings at all, as they were somewhat outdated, and only remained in scattered civilian nations that predated daimyos or wished to pretend that they did.

She squinted up at the over sized gate before them. It looked out of place, not sculpted out of the rock face around it, but built. A tailed beast could fit through the gate, and that...was a little concerning over the size of what might be inside.

She couldn't say for sure what _was_ in there, though, because the doorway was unnaturally dark, a wall of black standing at the threshold of the towering gate. Which was more concerning.

"Beyond those gates...is the domain of the Demon King Shula." The voice of the king spoke from behind her. "As you can see, the gate has been held open by the sword of the king himself." The man rode next to them and gestured down to a wicked looking blade jutting from the rocky ground, wedging the heavy door open. "As long as he lives, no one can pry it from the rock. His strength is too great."

"Wha?" Goku frowned over his shoulder at the man and then quickly sprinted over to the sword, eager to try his strength against the unspoken challenge. The small boy tugged and groaned, shifting about to get better leverage, face turning red from effort...and managed to move the sword not at all.

If what the king said was true, then somehow the weight of the sword in the ground was tied into the strength of the demon. If Goku couldn't lift it, that said unpleasant things. Potentially.

"...Without defeating Shula, it is impossible to remove the sword." The king gave a soft sigh as Goku frowned down at the sword. "But perhaps that is best for now."

She turned her gaze over to the monarch on the horse. "What? Why?"

"If the gate were closed before my daughter were retrieved, there might be no way to retrieve her in time."

"...What are you talking about?"

"The gate only opens with a key."

She frowned and crossed her arms as she watched Goku make a second, no better fared, attempt. "How was it opened this time?"

"That...is not known."

She pursed her lips, and walked toward the door where Goku stood. "I have an idea."

Goku glanced up at her as she approached. "Do you wanna try?"

"Step back a little." She walked forward as he took a step back, and - gathering a little bit of extra chakra, just in case a jutsu might be involved in the sword's placement - slammed her fist into the ground next to it.

With very little fanfare, the ground collapsed inward, and the sword clattered violently down into the pit, crashing with weight the metal itself shouldn't have held.

" _Don't let the door close_!" The king shouted with scandalized urgency.

Goku, who still stood near to the heavy structure, immediately turned and slammed both of his hands against it, stopping its inward swing after only an inch or two, heels digging into the ground. "Uh! This is gonna be hard...to open!"

"We can't open it once its closed. Just hold it that way instead."

Goku looked up at her in confusion. "What? Why?"

"When I come back with the princess, be ready to let it close behind me." She sprinted toward the door then, before he could come up with any further arguments.

" _Hey_!"

His indignant shout echoed as if it were disproportionately distant, and the light that poured through the doorway from the daylight outside faded into shadow far more quickly than it should have, as if her feet took her much longer distances than they should have.

In the end, it only indicated that she made the right choice.

Whatever this place was, and whoever the demon king happened to be...it was too dangerous to risk Goku's life for.

(*)

Shenanigans.

He'd never heard of anyone calling _shenanigans_ on a venerated teacher before, but he was about to call it on this old man. He'd been accepted initially as a student. It was actually easy, considering the kind of recluse he'd heard the man was.

Then he'd called the old man out about pushing giant rocks without actually doing it himself, and now he found himself out wandering the wildnerness to the west of the old man's island looking for 'someone pretty'. Honestly, he wouldn't have been able to tell if it was direct punishment preying on his fear of women, or if the man was just being exploitative.

He wouldn't have, if Krillin didn't make it clear this wasn't the _first_ time such an ultimatum had been issued.

Krillin grumbled to himself as they walked down the empty road. The road which had been empty the entire stretch they'd walked along it. "Maybe we should have taken the helicopter..."

He sighed. "Yeah, but if we were up there, we'd miss anyone that we passed anyway."

"I don't know about-" Krillin's response cut short at the sound of a scream in the distance.

(*)

The only things she could contribute to Team Seven had been small and insignificant. Even all of her strength paled next to the power that Sasuke and Naruto held, all of her smarts fell far behind Kakashi, and eventually Naruto outgrew the need for even her healing. By the end, she'd been unable to even help, except to stand by and watch. She couldn't save them, and in the end she watched them die because of it.

But here...she could do something. She could face danger and deal with what needed to be dealt with while Goku remained somewhere safe, out of danger, far away from gourds that could devour him or beings of ultimate power that could destroy him before she could do anything.

Maybe this demon king was only about as threatening as anyone else they'd met, maybe the king out there was wrong about what held that sword in place. Maybe he wasn't wrong. Besides, _one_ of them needed to be ready to close the door when the angry army tried to follow them out with the liberated princess.

She sprinted through the darkness until the dim light of torches ahead of her brought with it the hazy visage of a large amphitheater. The columns stretched off into the darkness above far enough that none of the light seemed to reach the ceiling. Pathways stretched off in front of her, to her left, and to her right.

A spear nearly the length and width of her body flew from the darkness toward where she ran. Clearly the darkness hid more than just the height of the room. She flipped over the weapon and spun toward the direction of the attack. With three paths...perhaps it would be better to ask which direction led to the king (or the princess).

Before she could decide what to say, a sword almost the size of the spear swung from the darkness. As she ducked under it, the figure holding the weapon now stood close enough that she could just make out its form in the gloom. A _massive_ figure.

"You don't belong here!" The male voice boomed off of the pillars and floor around her, making her head hurt a little.

"I agree." She clenched her fist and settled back on her heels, waiting for another attack. "But neither does the princess."

The sword swung again, and this time she leaped onto the blade itself and raced up toward the figure itself. Metal clattered to the ground as he dropped the blade, and she bounced off of it, fist pulled back. Knocking him out was obviously not the ideal answer, but keeping him from continuing to swing at her with something that could cut her in half with one swipe was a good idea.

Another hand contacted hers before she could, small and from the entirely wrong direction, pushing her strike to the side, and causing her to flip through the air away from _both_ of her attackers. She tucked her feet under her and slid along the ground in a crouch, stopping her momentum before she could hit one of the solid looking columns.

"Hey, if that's the best you've got..." A slim woman appeared in the torchlight, hair flowing around her in a dramatic manner that should have required more than the light breeze present in the room. "You've got no chance against Shula anyway. Go back where you belong before the two of us have to kill you."

Two, then? That...was probably the best she could have hoped for, considering how many others the large room could have accommodated.

She straightened as she watched the tall woman in front of her. "That's not gonna happen."

The woman gave a soft scoff and crossed her arms. "If that's your choice. Don't say I didn't warn you, human."

Metal flashed through the air, and she ducked just as a kunai flew by where she stood. Her leg lanced out, and the woman flipped off of the ground, landing lightly on the same pole that the kunai stuck into. She stood horizontally on the side of the pillar.

...Huh.

No one else had managed _that_ in this world yet.

She spun on her heel and slammed her fist into the column, decimating most of the structure up to where the woman stood, and sending dangerous cracks racing through the rest of it. Just one of them _probably_ wouldn't be enough to send the roof down on them, but it would discourage the woman from using height as an advantage in a place where she could so easily vanish into the darkness.

The woman gasped, and behind her she could hear that giant stumble a few steps backward.

She couldn't help a little grin. Honestly, she still hadn't grown out of showing off a little. "Like I said. That's _not_ gonna happen _."_

The woman was silent for a few moments, and metal whistled through the air again, as the brute swung his sword. Before Sakura needed to move, though, the woman spoke, voice harsh. "Stop, Gola!"

"..Uh?" The figure behind her - Gola, apparently - grunted heavily in confusion.

"I guess maybe I underestimated you." The woman gave a little shrug. "But it's going to take more than just brute strength if you think you can beat Shula."

She straightened slowly, gaze still on the woman, ears still listening for another strike from the brute behind her. "I've got a little more than that on my side."

"Yeah? Well...we'll see." The woman gave another huff, and then pointed off toward one of the hallways. "If that's who you're looking for, you'll find him down there. The marriage ceremony should be starting just about now. But don't say I didn't warn you if he kills you."

"Worry more about him." She turned, and sprinted off in the indicated direction. Normally, it'd probably be better to just defeat those two so she could escape easily...but if the king was already starting the marriage ceremony, she had limited time to work with.

And she didn't need to worry about Shula killing her. She couldn't die. Not until she'd brought everyone back.

The hallway wasn't as long as it'd seemed from the dark room, and the soft glow of strange looking circular lights that floated above her head lit it more than well enough for her to see everything around her. The hallway ended in another large room, this one packed with various twisted looking beings in many colors. Some looked humanoid like the woman in the other room had. Others looked like a cross between humanoid and strange, unidentifiable animals. One or two hulking beasts that stood on the far end of the room were...probably what she'd almost fought back there.

In the middle of the room was a small circular ring that looked quite similar to the tournament ring. Near to that on an elevated dais sat a frightened looking girl in a nightgown - the princess - and a tall purple man in lavish robes. The demon king Shula. Guards flanked either side of the throne, and the girl had been tucked in quite close to where he sat.

...Possibly, she could run in and get her before anyone could react.

Or, that king was as dangerous as everyone kept telling her.

A green figure with horns shouted out at the audience in the room about some sort of feat of strength to celebrate the marriage. She slipped through the rowdy crowd with...probably less shoving than she would have needed if they weren't all so strangely shaped.

Maybe, with the distractions, she could sneak close enough and ferry the princess away.

In fact...she ducked behind one of the bigger looking figures and quickly summoned a shadow clone, disguising it into...something close to one of the figures she bumped by. If it went out and distracted the crowd with a good fight, she might just be able to get the princess away before anyone ever landed a hit on it.

She wove through the crowd a little more carefully then, as her clone walked into the main ring and volunteered to fight. She couldn't pay _much_ attention to it, but much more than a simple script probably wouldn't be necessary for a short exhibition match.

Her other self slammed one of the creatures through the ring, causing the crash to reverberate off of the walls of the cavern, and the crowd gave shocked shouts. She pressed her back to the wall, and crept slowly to the dais, utilizing all of her skill to slip through the shadows and not disturb the air around she or the guards she snuck by.

Slowly...carefully.

She knocked the princess out.

Because it was much easier to substitute the girl with an illusion when the girl wouldn't fight and scream because an unfamiliar woman just grabbed her in a hostile and frightening situation. Hopefully the other king would forgive the necessary roughness.

The crowd roared, rowdier than ever, as the figure of herself taunted challengers. Soon enough the men would probably riot, and it would become difficult for anyone to know exactly when the princess escaped at all. If things went well, the gate would be long shut before they came for it.

A brighter light than the rest of the room shone on the doorway only a few feet from her. She ducked immediately, shielding the unconscious princess, and a blast of ki exploded against the wall in a burst of purple flame.

"If you leave before the end, I'll take it as a _great offense_." Ahead of her, the figure of the king _materialized_ right out of the shadows left in the hallway. Directly in her way. "If that were to happen...I'd have no choice but to kill every single human in your world."


	71. Chapter 71

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She barely managed to curl protectively around the sleeping form of the girl she carried before her body crashed right through a wall of her own. And then a second. And skidded several feet in the darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One of the great things about Shula is that we're given no indication of what his level of power is other than 'much greater than Goku'.

Well then.

This was less than ideal.

She glanced back at her other self. Still there, though obviously distracted now, like everyone else, by the display of the king. The illusion of the princess was gone, though. Had something gone wrong, or had he never been fooled in the first place?

"You don't _really_ expect a king not to notice when new faces appear in his kingdom, do you?" His voice was calm and level, expression just shy of friendly. However powerful he really was...obviously he was quite used to being fully in control.

She wasn't one of the humans he'd met before.

"Now..." He took a smooth step toward her. "If you would put the princess back in her place..."

She shifted her stance slightly, hefting the weight of the princess over her shoulder. Fighting with one hand wouldn't be the _best_ situation she'd ever been in, but nothing about this place indicated she'd need both, anyway. "I'd do that, but you're in my way."

His lips curled into a small smile, and he extended a hand toward her. "For the sake of her feelings, I will reiterate just once: Unhand my queen and _have a seat_. This is not a request."

"For _yours,_ I'll reiterate: _get out of my way_." Now that stealth failed, it wasn't likely she'd get away without a fight, though. Maybe it would have been better to bring Goku along after all. At least then she'd have both her arms empty.

Light flared up suddenly from his outstretched palm. She narrowly managed to duck under the blast, and sprinted a few steps out of the way just to ensure he couldn't immediately repeat the gesture. That was a _quick ki charge_.

The sound of the blast impacting stone echoed off of the far wall behind her. Apparently he wasn't _that_ concerned with the princess' welfare? She frowned, and clenched her free hand. The other her would be able to keep the others in the room from interfering much, at least for a while, but if she devoted energy to that and to keeping the princess asleep while she fought two battles...it would be difficult.

Better to get through it quickly and return before Goku got tired holding that gate open.

She leaped forward, fist charged with chakra, and swept through air as the tall man narrowly slipped out of her way. But that wasn't unexpected. Clearly he was maneuverable, given his...entrance. Without slowing, she let her slightly curved strike spin her around. Her leg lanced out as she spun, quick and just as deadly as her punches.

Her heel crashed into his palm, sending a shock wave of air slicing through the large room, crash of flesh and leather echoing off of the walls and scattering the nearby observers by the sheer force of the impact. Tendons on his arm bulged as he flexed, and she grit her teeth.

Neither of them moved.

He seemed disturbingly unaffected.

She used the leverage of his grip on her foot to twist into the air and kick him solidly in the side of his head. _That_ , at least, knocked him off of his feet and into the nearby wall. The din of the room silenced by then, muted by the shattering of stone and earth.

She dropped lightly to the ground. Dust billowed from the crushed wall, and for a few moments the only sound in the room was the breathing of all still inside it.

A moment later, air stirred across her face, and an unseen force as powerful as a train slammed into her chest.

It didn't feel so much like flying as simply _moving_. Quickly. She barely managed to curl protectively around the sleeping form of the girl she carried before her body crashed right through a wall of her own. And then a second. And skidded several feet in the darkness.

 _Ugh_.

She shook her head, struggling to clear it from the rattling impact, and pushed herself up from the ground on an unsteady arm.

Silhouetted in the dust and dirt floating in the air, the form of that king reappeared, no longer walking but _floating_. He _floated_ toward her, legs tucked under himself and crossed as if he were sitting on an invisible cushion instead of the _air_.

She'd have been more impressed under other circumstances.

"For caring so much about her feelings, you don't seem to care much for her welfare." There was always the off chance it just didn't occur to him not to use full force when she was _holding the hostage_.

"Don't I?" The man gave a little scoff. "Humans like you have no understanding of any world but your own."

She shifted on her feet. This room...even with the light filtering into it, it was hard to make out its purpose. Or how to get to the main exit without passing through the path that Shula blocked. "You're the one who's marrying one."

"Love..." He held out a hand toward her, in the same manner he had before. "Makes strangers of us."

She dodged before he quite fired it this time, taking the opportunity to use the light of the blast to navigate the room. Boxes. Dressers. Boxes and dressers were all that she managed to glimpse before the light splashed against the wall behind her and winked out once again. Still, she dashed toward the nearest box she'd seen, stepping onto it and using it as a platform to leap at him from a different angle than before.

He'd used lights in other rooms. Probably, that meant he actually _needed_ those lights to see properly.

Her fist landed, whipping his head down and bouncing his chin off of his chest, but in exchange his hands pressed against her stomach. The beam of light he shot didn't miss that time.

Once again, it took all of her effort to ensure that when she slammed into the roof above, and then crashed down to the ground, the princess was safe from the impact. At least she landed gracefully, instead of crashing through the floor. With her body.

She slammed her fist through stone, and chunks of ground flew up around her, fissures shooting out in every direction. The majority of the shock wave shot toward where the man floated, and while his feet might not have been on the ground to disturb his balance...that wouldn't protect him from the ground coming up to meet _him_.

Violently.

He sprawled backwards through the air, and she pounced. She sprinted a few steps and then launched herself through the air, fist slamming into his gut with as much force as she could muster this time.

He took off at an impressive speed. He also smashed through quite a few more walls than she had.

Rather than wait for a response, she took off immediately, racing through the damaged wall she'd been knocked through, and running down the hallway toward the exit. Beating him wasn't necessarily a requirement of the mission, as long as that king was also right about the gate being impassible once the door was again closed.

She narrowly dodged King Shula's shoulder when he burst through the wall next to her, flying nearly as quickly toward her as he had away from her. Carrying the princess was beginning to become a problem.

The air vibrated, and this time she ducked aside before the wall behind her buckled inward. Really, though, given this was _his_ home, she would have expected him to show a bit more restraint. But then, she was also holding his 'bride', and he seemed to show very little concern for her welfare either.

For the moment, he'd given up floating. His mistake. A sweep sent him to the ground, and a moment later her fist contacted with his stomach, crushing the floor inward underneath him. Shards of stone jutted upward, blocking off the path back into his arena, and nearly also blocking the way out. Crashes resounded from the dark pit that remained of where he'd been, as the force of her blow continued to send him deeper into the ground (or, perhaps, the lower levels of this complex).

She ran as quickly as the broken floor would allow her, escaping the hallway and breaking away into the almost inky blackness of the giant room she'd originally found herself in.

Something gripped her ankle.

A moment later, she felt herself forcibly yanked through the floor.

Without the princess.

(*)

Now, in his life he'd never really made it a habit to go racing toward the site of screams, but there wasn't exactly much else to do or to be found on the dusty road. And also...well, it was probably a better use for his skills between tournaments than banditry, lacking any other military forces to bring down.

At least Krillin didn't seem to disagree, as he ran just as quickly toward it.

"You know," the kid said, glancing up at him as they ran. "It's not even a _girl_ screaming over there."

"Yeah..." He gave the short one a bit of a grin. "But it's something to do, right?"

Krillin didn't look _entirely_ convinced, but he also didn't raise any other objections. So...he probably agreed. Mostly, at least.

It didn't take long to crest the hill that blocked their vision from the source of the scream. Screams, actually, but they'd stopped for a bit now. Which made sense, because the vehicle the person must have been driving was destroyed, and the man sprawled on the ground nearby.

He hopped down from the cliff, and heard the sound of Krillin following a moment later. Closer now, he could see the man still seemed to be breathing, if unsteadily. There was that, at least. Though...with the bullet holes all across the car and the flat tires...it wouldn't be easy for him to get back home in that state.

Yamcha grimaced to himself and rubbed his hand over the back of his neck. "Man..." This must have been the work of a bandit that patrolled the area...but it was sloppy. He'd never have been _this_ messy, and leaving the guy for dead? That was one step away from being a heartless killer.

"Is he dead?" Krillin walked up next to him, squinting warily.

"Nah, but it's gonna be a pain to get him to safety from out here." He knelt down to inspect the man for wounds...but...actually...the man seemed to simply have fainted. Or been knocked unconscious with minimal violence.

Which was...odd, considering the damage to the vehicle.

Krillin spoke from behind him. "Looks like whoever it was is gone now."

He frowned, and glanced around the area, scanning for footprints, or any sign of what direction the attacker might have gone. "...Maybe."

"Er... _Maybe_?"

He hefted the man onto his shoulder and straightened, turning his gaze back toward the old man's island. Ridiculous demands or no, they didn't really have much choice but to go back there and get one of those vehicles if they wanted to get the man to safety. On foot would just take too much time away from getting back to training.

"It's...probably nothing. You're right. Whoever attacked must have already fled the scene when this guy started screaming."

Despite the fact that they couldn't have possibly known anyone around would hear.

He took a step forward, and a line of bullets shot across the ground in front of him, creating a sudden screen of smoke, dust, and dirt between the two of them and 'home'.

"I thought I might get _someone_ with the way he kept shouting, but... _this_ is a surprise."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I intended for this to only last two chapters, like Terror an Plague, but really they rushed through the story to cram it into one singular episode. A lot.


	72. Chapter 72

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Really, she couldn't expect Goku to wait much longer before he came in after her. Which meant he'd find the princess up where she'd left her...and then trap both of them in a dimension that there might not be any ready escape from. With a very angry king.
> 
> A very powerful, angry king.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, part of what took so long was that I've been busy. Part of it was that I just wasn't satisfied with how this chapter went and rewrote basically every part multiple times because it was just terrible. So there.

She'd considered the room past the giant entrance as 'inky black' when she'd first entered it.

In retrospect, that was a completely inaccurate description of it. Next to the room she crashed into that one was at _least_ twilight. She couldn't even see her hand in front of her face. She knew that because her hand was _right there_ pushing her away from the ground she'd slammed into. Or whatever it was that cracked underneath her.

Air stirred and she flipped herself off of the ground a moment before Shula (as it must have been) slammed into where she'd been. Considering the relative darkness of everywhere else she'd been...could he functionally see in _this_ darkness?

Probably, or he had great confidence in his ability to fight blind over hers. The latter would be a mistake.

She ducked, and hooked her fist into the stomach of her attacker just as he made another attack. A moment later, something heavy smashed into stone a short distance in front of her. Fighting blind wasn't ideal, but it didn't make a ninja useless, either.

She lurched to the side and slammed her shoulder into a solid wall with a hiss. Figuring out where he was wouldn't be too much trouble...but she needed to establish the size and shape of the room.

A kick swept her legs out from under her, and she rolled in the direction of the attack. Dodging too quickly without establishing her boundaries and obstacles would be more dangerous and potentially harmful than hitting the floor. Again.

Light.

She just needed a _glimpse_ of the room.

The air stirred around her - too much - and she shoved hard against the floor, propelling herself into a nearby wall before one of the man's attacks shattered the stone she'd been lying on. Sharp chips of rock pelted her even from where she lay, one slicing her cheek as it passed by.

Definitely stone.

She dug a hand into her pocket as she cautiously pulled herself up, still squatting and ready to move. Stone tapped as the man began to move.

_Quickly_!

Her hand lanced out, and a self-made kunai slashed across the stone in front of her. Sparks shot up into the room and flashed a light almost brilliant in the total darkness around them. The king recoiled instantly from the sudden flare, and the outline of the room burned negative relief in her vision.

Now... _that_ was better. She just needed to get through the king and back up top before the princess woke up. Or those guards found the princess sleeping in the middle of the floor.

(*)

_Tedious_.

That's what this 'mission' was. Wander a poorly populated part of the world and find an attractive woman willing to live on a tiny island with three strange men - one of whom would spend most of the time harassing said woman. Yeah.

Why _not_ also have a bandit wander by and bother them? That might actually have been an improvement, and something he could make _some_ kind of attempt to train with.

If it wasn't a woman.

"I don't _believe_ this..."

The figure that stepped out from a large boulder in front of them grinned, hefting something that _had_ to have been stolen somewhere better equipped than a wasteland like this. "Neither would I, but here you are. Two dummies rushing right where I can shoot you."

Krillin next to him scoffed. "What kind of a woman that pretty needs to resort to stealing things?"

The woman's green eyes turned from him to his shorter companion, irritation flaring up immediately. "You got a problem with the way I look? Lemme show you how tough I _am_!"

"Whoa! Wait!" Setting off the woman with the gun who'd just attacked someone else was probably not the best of ideas. "W-what he's trying to say is-surely we can help you?"

" _What_?" Krillin glared up at him in annoyed confusion immediately. He pointedly ignored his short companion. Really, anything that got the woman out of their sight and no longer aggressive toward them was best.

The woman swaggered up toward them and he resisted the strong urge to take an equal step back. The last time a violent woman with a weapon had gotten close to him, he'd nearly ended up with a broken nose. He had no interest in revisiting that.

"You must be the brains, huh?" The woman smirked up at him, and then leveled the gun in her hands in his direction. "Since you're so helpful, just dump out everything you've got in your pockets and I might let you go."

"There's _no way_!" Krillin shouted his response before he could say or do anything else. The younger man took a step forward and clenched his fists, managing to look intimidating enough to cause the woman to look apprehensive. "You think you can just bully people into giving you their precious things? It's _not gonna happen_!"

"Krillin-"

" _No_!" Krillin snapped and sliced his hand through the air. "I don't care if it's not important. I'm not getting pushed around that easily!"

The woman shook her head, overcoming whatever surprise he'd induced, and turned her gun. "Heh. If that's what you want your last words to be, I ain't gonna change 'em!"

It wasn't really a surprise, but the next few moments passed quickly. Bullets exploded from the gun, and Krillin shot from the ground, moving as quickly as he'd ever seen his fellow student run. Dust and dirt kicked up and partly obscured his vision of the two in front of him, a line of bullets raced across the ground past the point Krillin had been, and a fist collided with metal, knocking the bandit's weapon out of her hand.

She stumbled backward, off balance, and crashed to the ground with an angry shout.

"Why you _little-_!" She rolled onto her hands and knees and lurched for where the gun slid across the rocky ground. Krillin slid more quickly, kicking the gun into the boulder she'd hid behind earlier and shattering something metal on it.

"I-!" The woman spluttered, face red, glaring up at Krillin. "I'll...I...-"

Whatever she'd been about to say exploded into a spectacular sneeze, instead.

(*)

She spun through the air. At the last moment, an arm that felt like compressed steel collided with her leg and sent shock waves through her body. It was getting a little bit old, honestly. Whether or not he could see her in the darkness, his reflexes and reaction time were _unreal_.

She gripped his wrist before it could collide with her face-he'd made similar attempts before, now she didn't even need the change in air pressure to know he'd try. Chakra surged through her hand and she twisted with a growl of irritation.

For once, at least, she managed to get enough a grip to snap the wrist in her hand, but the response was less than satisfying.

She narrowly flung herself out of the way before one of his invisible blasts of air sliced through where she'd been and smashed into the wall behind her.

Really, she couldn't expect Goku to wait much longer before he came in after her. Which meant he'd find the princess up where she'd left her...and then trap both of them in a dimension that there might not be any ready escape from. With a very angry king.

A very powerful, angry king.

She slowed her skid across the ground just enough to keep from crashing into crates she'd seen earlier. He'd knocked the kunai out of her hands almost immediately, clearly miffed at the idea of neutralizing his sight advantage in the dark, and she'd yet to find them again.

This battle...could take a while yet.

She swerved to the side and uppercut, simultaneously dodging a strike and landing a solid one square in his chest. He slammed into a wall with a satisfying crash, but...it wasn't the first time he'd done so. He was _frustratingly_ durable, and every attempt she'd made to escape out the hole to the top room had ended in painful failure. Nothing seemed to stun or delay him long enough to get all the way to the top, and he just _refused to stay down_.

She grit her teeth in frustration, and leaped away from where she stood. Dull sparks of light illuminated the room briefly as his own metal weapons clashed against the stone behind her. He didn't look any more worn out than he'd been before.

Something needed to change. If it were just her fighting him, with nothing else at stake, that would be one thing. But if Goku found his way into the mess of things...finding a way out would be less of a worry than ensuring nothing happened to him. Which was the _worst_ way to fight a battle.

A solid force slammed into her back and sent her flying across the small space, crashing into thick walls that never seemed to end, regardless of how hard she or he slammed through them.

See.

Just thinking about the situation distracted her.

She shook her head and turned on her heel. He'd been still a few moments. It meant he was about to attack with something powerful, or he was finally getting the tired. The first was obviously more likely between the two. "Damn it..."

She clenched her eyes shut - it wasn't as if keeping them open did her any good - and focused her chakra.

No, not chakra.

_Ki_.

Something destructive. Something concentrated.

Something he wouldn't be expecting to dodge.

Heat flared in her hands, and light flickered against her eyelids.

Raw, unprocessed chakra...ki...was a raging storm, ready to explode inside and out of her, to spiral out of control into uselessness the moment her grip slipped from it at all. Any _sane_ person would process it the way it was meant to be used.

Energy burned bright in her hand and she finally opened her eyes. Shula staggered back a step and shielded his face from the light that flooded the dark room so completely that tears formed and trickled down her dirt-caked face.

Her scream was equal parts effort and freshly surging adrenaline, as she thrust out her arm toward her stunned opponent.

He crashed through the wooden crates behind him and then the wall of dirt behind that without even making an attempt to dodge her attack.

She wasted no time in racing from the indent she'd made and leaping up into the air to escape. One hand made contact with the wall and propelled her up further. A second.

Below her, wood shattered.

She flipped out onto the stone floor above, where the princess lay crumpled asleep.

The ground shook even as she scooped the girl up and raced toward the light in the distance. Even that much burned her eyes after having been stuck in total darkness for what felt like hours. She fished a small ball out of her pocket. It'd seemed pointless in such a small room where he might not have had any need for sight at all...but he _must_ have used eyes normally if he'd shielded them against the light of her ki.

And she only needed to buy a few moments.

Smoke erupted from the ground as she shattered the glass ball at her feet. For a moment, no more than that, she and the princess were concealed. She needed no more than that to create a duplicate image of them both, and leap into the darker part of the room nearby, racing parallel to the one that continued onward.

A brilliant shot of light sliced through the image, square through its chest.

For a moment, her mirror image twisted in a mimicry of pain, disrupted by the attack.

White smoke exploded in every direction as it dispelled, and she dove through the open door into the crater she'd made out of the ground outside.

" _Close the door_!"

Out in her own territory, without the threat of being trapped forever in what might have been an entirely _different_ world from the parallel one she'd already been trapped in, fighting him would be a very different thing. With a frustrated Goku ready to get in on it, however...

Her concern was unfounded, a moment later the gigantic door slammed shut above where she landed with the princess, and a very dissatisfied Goku dropped down after her, sliding down the uneven dirt of the damaged ground without any concern.

"That wasn't _fair_! I wanted to see what was in there, too!" He huffed and glared up at her even as she straightened, hands on his hips. "I can't train and get stronger if I can't fight anything."

She let the jutsu holding the princess asleep slip away, and looked up at the mouth of the crater. A few of the guards that accompanied them to the doorway peeked over the edge with some concern. "There wasn't much to see."

Goku didn't look at all convinced. "You were fighting someone!"

She helped the groggy princess onto her back, and climbed the uneven wall of the pit toward the worried looking guards. "...I didn't beat him, though."

"Nevertheless." The king, who must have heard her comment as she climbed out to freedom, gave a relieved smile. "You've brought our Princess Misa back to us!"

The young girl dropped to the ground near to her and sprinted the distance toward the king. "Father!"

She turned her gaze from the reunion back to the solid looking door. Despite how close that other king had been to her, the door seemed to show no indication of being opened. Perhaps whatever key they needed was on the outside, given that the sword had been forcing the door to stay open?

...That seemed unlikely to be completely true, given it had been opened from the inside before.

"So...you didn't beat him?"

She shook her head after a moment, and glanced down at Goku, finally allowing herself to feel _some_ relief. He looked both confused and still a little disappointed at being unable to participate. "Next time...maybe you can do it for me. If you finish my training."

His expression lit up then, disappointment vanishing, and he gripped his hand in front of himself in excitement. "Then I want to get back to it right now! Let's get started immediately!"

From behind her, the king spoke suddenly. "Wait, before you go...you rescued our princess and saved all of us. There must be some reward we can provide you."

She shook her head. Normally she _did_ charge for her services, but...really, there wasn't much need to when they had at _least_ two wealthy friends and little to spend it on while they were traveling anyway. "It wasn't like you promised us one when we got here."

Not that she could remember, anyway. Mostly they were promised danger.

The man frowned slightly, and then gave a reluctant nod. "...Very well then. However...to celebrate the safety of the princess and the people here, we shall host a feast. If you are not in too much of a hurry..."

"I think we should stay for the feast." Goku nodded, cutting into the king's words without any sort of hesitation. "And _then_ we can get back to training. Holding that door made me _hungry_."


	73. Chapter 73

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She wasn't keeping count of the times she'd heard phrases and terms that should only have existed in her own world, but there were times when it was so prolific she struggled to believe this world wasn't simply a genjutsu she'd found herself caught in upon returning to the battle with Kaguya.

The moonlight cast deep shadows across the forest path, lighting only patches of dirt and grass between rustling leaves. Naturally, she kept away from the path entirely, slipping from branch to branch with the breeze that stirred through the night, disguising her movements and sound alike.

Goku couldn't disguise his own as well. She knew exactly where he was as he barreled through the brush behind her. But that was to be expected. Tracking others who hid themselves could be much easier than hiding oneself. There was no reason to rush his training.

After all, there were still eight years to wait before she could go home.

She halted, standing still against the trunk of one of the trees she passed through. A moment later, her overeager student crashed through the trees below, not even hesitating for a moment. Clearly he wasn't paying enough attention.

She gripped a dulled kunai in her belt and shifted forward slightly, ready to strike. Two more moments were all she'd give him to realize he was no longer chasing after anything in the night but wind.

A shout echoed through the forest, and something larger than either of them cracked through the underbrush. Goku turned toward the sound with an expression of mild surprise, and something dark darted through the trees toward them.

"Saku-"

She leaped out of the trees in the same moment his expression turned from surprise to determination. A huge creature burst from the trees in front of them, a hulking boar nearly as tall as she was, expression angry and foaming from exertion.

It must have been running _from_ something, as Goku hadn't been making quite enough noise to stir it up so badly, but it had no concern for anything in its way, all the same.

She flipped onto her hands and kicked the creature off of its feet into the air. Goku's faithful red staff flashed through the moonlight a moment later, and her companion sent the creature flying into a tree a short distance from them.

For a moment, it seemed stunned from the double attack. Then, it shook its great head and lifted itself back up to its feet, turning toward them with purpose now.

If they weren't targets of it before, they certainly were now.

"Ready?" She glanced down at Goku and he grinned up at her with his usual enthusiasm.

"Yeah!"

If it had been running from something to begin with, it was probably best to ensure they didn't face that _and_ an angry giant boar at the same time. Just for convenience's sake.

The creature gave an angry snort and started to charge at the two of them, unfazed by their ready stances.

" _Enough_!"

The sudden unfamiliar shout was actually so abrupt it seemed to startle even the animal in front of them. The voice echoed from the direction the boar had appeared originally, but before she could turn to see where it came from, a bolt of color shot into the clearing from above the tree line.

Between the two of them and the boar, a lone man knelt in the grass. Next to him, a splintered plank of wood stuck deep into the ground.

His entrance could rival one of Gai or Lee's...but the purpose of the wooden plank was...a mystery.

She frowned, and stared at the strange man as he straightened. Behind him, the boar pawed at the ground, agitated still but apparently unwilling to attack the new foe just yet. The pale lavender of the man's coat washed out to almost blue in the moonlight, and the symbol on his chest was unfamiliar to her.

He brushed a well oiled braid off of his shoulder, and then turned coolly toward them, back to the boar as if it held no threat at all. "How unexpected, to find two battle ready warriors in an empty forest like this."

"Well _you're_ here." Goku huffed, glancing between the man and the boar as if the latter also counted as one of them.

The man gave a small nod. "So I am. However, _my_ presence here was requested by the good village nearby."

"There's a village near here?" She squinted in the direction both he and the beast had come from. "We've only been passing through."

"Is that so?" The man chuckled lightly, and turned away from them as well, looking off toward where the village must have been. "Then you may consider yourselves greatly blessed. Crossing paths with the terrible Inoshikacho on the day that _I_ am here to rescue you is truly a fortune that may never be repeated in your life!"

"Ino..."

Ino... _what_?

She wasn't keeping count of the times she'd heard phrases and terms that should only have existed in her own world, but there were times when it was so prolific she struggled to believe this world wasn't simply a genjutsu she'd found herself caught in upon returning to the battle with Kaguya. (She couldn't, because she wanted it so badly that if she allowed herself to believe it at all, she'd never be able to accept anything else.)

Even so...

"Inoshikacho." The man spoke as a teacher, gesturing toward the beast as if it weren't clearly rearing up and preparing to attack him. "This terrible beast you see before you. It is a demon boar that prowls this land, devouring villages and all that comes across its path. There is, of course, no need to fear _now_ , however. To one of my skill, it's of no threat."

Inoshikacho...

Didn't one of their tactics involve boars?

She shook her head, and stared at the beast. It...didn't look familiar at all. _Why would it have a name like that_?

"Aw, but if it's so tough, I wanna fight it first!"

"Nonsense." The beast finally _did_ attack.

With just as little urgency as he'd displayed since arriving in front of them, the man smacked the creature away with one hand. The beast bounced off of the same tree once again. It seemed much less surprised the second time around. With an angry howl (a sound she'd previously not heard from boars), it stumbled back to its feet and turned on him once more.

Before it could take more than one step, however, a blur of white and green shot from a nearby tree. A small figure smacked into the boar's neck, causing it to stumble, and the man who had been speaking previously struck out immediately. A swift punch to the creature's ribcage caused it to collapse heavily to the ground.

Despite what the name suggested it might do...once it was clearly dead or unconscious, Inoshikacho did not erupt into three smaller creatures after all.

Because...

Why _would_ it make any sense?

"...Is it already done?" Goku sounded as disappointed as she expected him to, deprived of a battle.

"Yes!" The small figure was, apparently, a small child dressed in some sort of full-head war paint. The white of his face was so pale and bright in the moonlight that he nearly gave off a slight glow himself. His cheeks were painted with darker circles, but the night made it difficult to tell which color they were. "There's nothing to fear anymore, the beast has been defeated."

" _Aww_..." Goku sighed and slumped his shoulders.

She reached down and pat his shoulder lightly. He hadn't grown that much over the past two years, but she didn't need to lean down as much to touch his shoulders anymore. "Another time, Goku."

"Goku...?" The tall man before them turned back toward them with a curious expression. "Could it be, you're the boy that competed in the last World Martial Arts tournament?"

He perked up a little in surprise. Honestly, she couldn't help a bit of surprise in her expression as well. Since they'd started traveling, very few people had actually recognized Goku from the tournament.

"Uh...yeah! I was in the last one!" He grinned and clapped his hands together. "And I'm gonna be in the next one, too. This time I'm gonna win it!"

The man's lips curled up into a smirk more cruel than amused. The little one behind him gave a light chuckle. "Well...we shall have to see that when we meet there."

"Wha..." Goku glanced between the man and then briefly up at her, as if he wasn't certain of what he'd heard. "You're gonna compete too?"

"The world is running short on monsters." The man settled his hands behind his back and gave Goku a cold smile. "What better place is there to display one's skill now?"

Nothing that the man said was _threatening_ , nor was it even suspect. Indeed, he was pretty much civil and polite since he'd arrived. And yet...he oozed danger. Confidence, but one that came from the deaths of many by his hands. His voice was a threat even when his words weren't a challenge.

She didn't like him.

Naturally, his gaze settled only on Goku.

"I...guess so. But I'm gonna test my skill there, too!" Goku nodded, apparently unfazed by the man's demeanor. "Someone's gonna be there that I wanna get the chance to beat this time. I didn't get to last time, but _this time_ I'm gonna."

"Well then, perhaps we will meet in battle afterward."

"Nah, I don't think so." He shook his head, and then laced his hands behind his neck and grinned up at the man. "But we can fight before then in the tournament instead! I think it'll be fun!"

The man gave a soft scoff, and settled his hands behind his waist. "How very confident of you to say."

"Confidence is important going into a battle, wouldn't you say?" She spoke before Goku could. Clearly, he wasn't aware of the slight he'd dealt toward the man in front of them. Picking a fight, while probably entertaining, wouldn't have been in anyone's interest.

"That confidence..." The man's gaze swept between the two of them. "Could it be the kind built from toppling something like the Red Ribbon Army?"

She blinked. "What?"

Just _how_ would someone know about that? It wasn't likely anyone would have survived to tell stories, and no one before now had made any sort of mention about _who_ took down the Red Ribbon Army. And...few knew about Goku's exploits in the tournament, either.

In...a casual encounter...?

"Master Tao." A fresh voice called out from the forest behind the ominously smiling man, and a moment later another tall figure walked from the shadows. "There you are. I see that the beast was defeated?"

The man's intense gaze finally turned from them to the green clad man behind him. "Of course. A simple-minded demon like this one is of no threat to me."

"Of course." The one who remained mostly obscured by the braided man gave a small nod. "Then we should return it to the village and assure them that their peace of mind is once more intact."

"Yeah. And collect our reward for saving them!" The small one nodded quickly, turning toward the boar already.

"Very well then. It _is_ getting quite late." The man turned away from them completely, and walked toward the boar. He hesitated a moment, and looked over his shoulder toward them once more. "We will meet again. Next year."

"Yeah!" Goku nodded happily, and then gave an excited wave.

As the trio tied up the hog and then disappeared again into the night, jumping into the trees with as much speed as they'd appeared, she couldn't help the frown that tugged across her lips as they vanished.

...Whatever it was...

Those three made her feel uneasy.

Silence fell upon the forest once more almost immediately after the group of mercenaries left with their prize. In the distance, the cries of a few night time birds began to sound, echoing off of the tree branches and alerting her to the passage of time.

Whoever they were, it was an issue for later. A year, still, until they'd be back at the tournament. Or...Goku would. She didn't have much more reason to enter the tournament now than she had before, but...at least she'd be there. Just in case of whatever it was that made her feel uncertain about it.

"Man..." Goku made an irritated sound and walked ahead of her through the freshly trampled grass. "Now I want _bacon_."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact - This was going to be a two chapter adventure, but the last adventure was four chapters, and not much could be done with the story of the episode that would be interesting anyway. (Most of it was fluff with Inoshikacho and the villagers that wouldn't work as well with Sakura present)
> 
> The important parts made it into this chapter, and that's what counts.
> 
> Onward.
> 
> To excitement.


	74. Chapter 74

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sunlight glinted off of the old man's sunglasses.
> 
> After three years, she had the immediate urge to punch him.

" _We're gonna be late!"_

"You could _fly_."

"No way, I'm gonna do the whole time on foot!"

On his _bare_ feet, because he'd managed to burn his shoes off trying to rush controlling chakra and accidentally lit something on fire with ki instead. Personally, she doubted that the old man would care very much if Goku used the flying cloud for the last few _minutes_ he had before getting to the world martial arts tournament, but he was making fairly decent progress despite his bare feet anyway.

He just kept complaining about it, like it was _her_ fault he almost drowned himself and slowed them down.

She'd yet to even decide whether she would actually enter the tournament again just for Goku's whim, so, really...it didn't matter to _her_ if they got there on time.

For all of his worry about it, he managed to skid into the registration booth with twenty minutes left to spare.

Really.

He huffed and panted still as he regained his breath, looking around excitedly through the crowd of fighters that already gathered. She squinted across the crowd after a moment. For whatever reason, neither Yamcha nor Krillin seemed to be among them, much less the others that came along last time.

"Hey..." She walked up to the pair behind the table labeled 'tournament registration'. "Have Yamcha or Krillin registered yet?"

The two glanced up at her in surprise, and then flipped through the pages of scribbled names and signatures. "...No, it doesn't look like it."

"Did Ino?" Goku slapped his hands on the table and leaned in at them excitedly, the height of the table forcing him to lift himself off of his feet slightly to do so. "The lady from last time, is she here?"

The men fell back a little in surprise when he burst into their space, and then glanced between each other with a nervous look that made her briefly concerned that they might call for security instead of respond to his request. When Goku didn't actually move to do anything else, though, the two hesitantly reached out to flip through the pages anyway.

"...No...no one by that name." One shook his head.

The other ventured a question himself. "...Do you mean the finalist last year? She...she hasn't been here yet."

Goku's expression fell in disappointment, and he dropped back down to the ground with a huff. He jut out his lip and turned around, crossing his arms. It was one of the most petulant expressions she'd ever seen on him. "If she doesn't hurry up, she'll miss the tournament."

"...She did concede." She glanced up at the two men at the table, before adding, "Didn't she? Maybe she doesn't want to come back."

His expression soured even more and he shook his head. "No...nu-uh! She's _gotta_ be back. I've got to beat her this time. If I don't, it won't count!"

She sighed, and shook her head.

Maybe it was for the best she'd entered the tournament and taught Goku a lesson about strength...but it would have been much more convenient if someone _else_ had done it instead. She couldn't just make up a second person over and over every three years and expect it to last.

"Goku!" A familiar female voice called out through the crowd. A moment later, Bulma broke away from the group of martial artists near them, followed by Yamcha, Krillin, and the old man. A moment or two later, the two animals that traveled with them also broke away from the crowd.

"Ah, Bulma!" Goku grinned up at her, and then shifted his attention to his fellow student, running over to hug the other in excitement. "It's been _so long_!"

Sunlight glinted off of the old man's sunglasses.

After three years, she had the immediate urge to punch him.

(*)

Honestly, the flight had mostly been a relief that they were away from the _crazy chick_ that for some reason had declared she'd stay in their house. Their perverted old master never really seemed to mind, but as much as the woman wasn't really a _real_ threat...he didn't like the idea of getting woken up by one of her violent sprees.

And really. Even after a couple of years stuck with her, he never really could completely relax around her. Partly because the more comfortable he could be around the woman, the angrier Bulma would be if she ever dropped by their training and found the woman there.

Getting away for a bit was a relief.

But...now that he stood waiting for the tournament to start, worries like that fell to the back of his mind.

Goku looked older, and there was a certain difference in the way that he carried himself that made him wonder just what the pair did to train those three years. Sakura looked older too, and...less worn down. She looked a bit more like he'd remembered her being when they'd first met, before things got...worse, for her.

He glanced across the fighters as Goku and the others spoke. A few of the same people he'd seen in the preliminaries were still there again, hoping to vie for a spot in the finals yet again.

...She was a little short, but... _that_ woman.

Did she not come back this time?

Ultimately, he'd had no time to look into her any further once he'd started training with the old master and Krillin, but even before then he'd come up with nothing anyway. He couldn't decide if it was annoying or not that she didn't seem to be around this time.

Just what had been _up_ about her, anyway?

He shook his head and crossed his arms. "Everyone's signed up, right?"

Krillin and Goku glanced up at him briefly, and then gave short nods.

"We should probably get to the tournament hall, then. It's only a few minutes left before the registrations close and the preliminaries will start."

Goku frowned and swept his gaze around the area briefly, before giving a disappointed sigh.

Was he waiting on someone, too?

(*)

She still wanted to punch him. That urge just grew the more she spoke with him.

How she'd managed to survive months around him...she could only blame on disorientation and confusion associated with first arriving in the world. The idea of building up a tolerance, even a temporary or slow growing one, irritated her.

...But mostly, the idea of reprising the role of Ino did.

For a moment, she'd glimpsed herself in the reflection of the bathroom mirror.

It felt like her heart nearly ripped itself out of her body.

She clenched a hand over her chest and shook her head, willing away the pain. Golden hair brushed against her cheek, and her eyes burned. No, it wouldn't do. She was better than to allow herself to think about...anything. The woman who went into the tournament for Goku and the others wasn't Ino. It wasn't even her.

Her golden hair vanished, shifting to a cropped cut that would stay out of her vision and her old friend would never be caught wearing.

A few moments and a spike of chakra, and an image of herself - her actual self, not the disguise she wore - appeared in front of her. There wouldn't be any excuse not to be in the crowd this time, so...she wouldn't make any.

Perhaps at the end of the tournament this time she'd end the disguise entirely.

She steadied herself, and marched out of the building, heading for the registration table with renewed determination.

This was all _stupid_.

But...it...

It wouldn't do for Goku to get cocky. Assuming he could manage to _make_ it to her this time.

(*)

"All I'm saying is, why did she even bother to spend all that time training if she isn't even interested in the world tournament?"

It wasn't like he was in a hurry to fight her. Even if he was much stronger now than he was, the memory of how terrifying she'd been when they were training together still lingered. Though. He'd totally caught up to her by now, even if he didn't have some of her _weirder_ tricks. She couldn't use those in the tournament anyway.

Maybe that's why she didn't want to do it?

Whatever.

Goku shrugged a little. "She says it's not fair because she's not from this world."

That...

That...

Well. Okay. _If_ she really was from another world (and maybe he still believed that a little) she had a point. But it wasn't like there were any _specific_ rules in the tournament that required people to have been born on the planet to fight in it.

It was a loophole!

"...Yeah, sure. Whatever." He huffed. Maybe he could count it as conceding, if she still wasn't brave enough to compete. "So...did you learn any new tricks while you were out there?"

Like throwing fire or something?

Man.

He'd _better not_ have learned how to breathe fire and not tell him how to do it too.

Goku nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah. Well...a little! I caught the bell!"

The what?

Before he could ask for clarification, something - rather, someone - caught his attention away from his old friend. She looked different now...older, with radically different hair...which...suited her. As a martial artist. Still, he couldn't help but recognize her. She'd been way too infuriating, daunting, and just...rude to forget. And he had a score to settle with her.

"Hey, it's her."

Goku blinked in confusion and turned his attention in the direction he'd looked. A moment later, his friend's expression shifted from confusion to excited anticipation. " _She's here_!" Goku grinned and sprinted toward her. "I can't wait to fight!"

Well, it wasn't like he wasn't excited to get the chance to settle the score, too, especially after she'd been missing in the media blitz about returning contestants and seemed to be missing from the registrations. But it was just embarrassing to go running up like an admirer. He didn't admire her! She was barely even a temporary rival.

For sure!

He huffed after a moment and shook his head.

Okay.

So maybe he was a little jealous that Goku seemed more excited about a rematch with some strange woman than a showdown between the two of them. But...it _was_ Goku.

Still.

"You could at least wait and see which one of us gets to fight her before you start making promises about it..."

His voice was pretty expertly under his breath, low enough to make a biting comment about his master and not get clunked on the head about it. Someone nearby still spoke up, though, and for a terrible moment he thought his quiet voice might have been a lie (and an act on his master's part) all along.

"You look jealous."

He glared up at the pink haired woman. The one who _still refused_ to enter the tournament. "Should you even be here? This place is about to be competitors only. Visitors have to go to the seating."

Knuckles rapped lightly on his head. They didn't really hurt. He chose to believe they were supposed to, at least a little. It felt less annoying, then. "I know. I just wanted to give Goku some last minute advice. Is that a problem?"

He frowned. "Advice?"

...Not about the fire breathing thing?

She nodded to the small boy who bounced animatedly in front of the previous almost-champion. "He can't get into the tournament wearing torn up rags like those."

...Wait.

The world tournament had a _dress code_?


	75. Chapter 75

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Krillin gave an irritated huff. "What's the point of being here if you're not even going to try?"
> 
> "What's the point of competing if you're just going to concede the final match?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have actually been SUPER SLAMMED by RL since I started this chapter. An actual double cardiac bypass has been involved in the reasons why I haven't updated. It's been crazy.

One advantage to having a shadow clone running around while she did other things was that she didn't need to be the one to bustle Goku off and get him dressed in something proper before the tournament. Though it might have been a welcome escape from the suspicious looks from those around her. She'd just about forgotten how often they wore those expressions after three years around isolated villagers and travelers.

"You're pretty good at disappearing." Yamcha frowned at her from alongside Krillin, who had wandered closer while clearly pretending not to. "After the tournament no one ever could find you for interviews."

She expected Goku and perhaps Krillin to be hung up on her return- enough that she agreed to do this stupid thing again - but Yamcha? Just what made him so suspicious about her? Was he such a sore loser? "It's not disappearing. I come from a small place."

"Really?" He arched an eyebrow, curious. "Where?"

_Really, though_.

"Does it matter? Unless you were planning to follow me home?"

He blinked and shook his head, face turning a darker shade. "Wh- _no_ , that wasn't what I-" He sputtered incoherently a few moments, and she took the opportunity to walk away from him. Now that she knew him just a bit better...at least she knew of one weakness to use against him. Even if she had no idea what he was actually _after_. It was unlikely in the extreme that he could know or suspect the truth - especially with both of her present at once - but...whatever it was he seemed to be trying to pry into, she didn't have time for that.

Helping Goku and Krillin was of far greater importance.

A voice cut through the crowd as she walked. "So you came after all?"

For a moment, she wasn't really certain if the one who spoke was addressing her - she certainly didn't recognize the voice, and in the form she held no one ought to know her very well anyway. Still, when she did turn to look, four sets of eyes stared directly at her. Disturbing...she actually _did recognize_ the men who stood watching her. At least two of them, anyway. It had only been a brief encounter, but it was impressive. And Goku had never let go of it, so...that also helped. The man in the forest who had fought the giant boar.

He'd mentioned that he would be coming to the tournament...but...

Just why would he recognize her looking like _this_?

The man with the braid gave a cool smile, perhaps sensing her nervous confusion, and took a step toward her. "After forfeiting the previous time and vanishing, there were those who doubted you might ever return at all."

Ah...yes.

Of course.

She gave a small roll of her shoulders. "I don't care about the prize. All I want is a challenge."

The man's smile grew to a grin. "I as well seek the challenge." Hadn't he mentioned something about making money? "Should we meet, our battle will be quite entertaining."

She huffed, and glanced away from him toward the preliminaries hall. "Make it past the preliminaries first. Then we'll see who gets matched up. Right?"

His expression sharpened. She didn't really care. The only reason she'd returned as Ino was for Goku and Krillin. Other people who wanted to challenge her were mostly just distractions. With that in mind, she offered the man a pleasant smile and walked away toward the hall.

If they made it through the preliminaries, then she supposed they might be people that the others would need to fight through. If Goku didn't throw away her training, it shouldn't be any trouble for him at all this time.

(*)

The last tournament, Goku's growth had been pretty amazing after training under the Turtle Hermit. It felt pretty good to be the one who'd trained under the hermit this time. Getting through his preliminary rounds didn't even require any effort on his part at all. If he couldn't _see_ how good Goku had gotten in the three years they'd been apart, he might have worried a little that the tournament might actually not pose a challenge at all.

As it was...Krillin, Goku, and Ino. He couldn't delude himself into thinking that they wouldn't push him to his limit.

But then, he was looking forward to it.

He leaned against the nearby wall as he watched the strange woman fight. 'Fight' seemed a little generous for the ways her rounds had gone. Though he'd missed it, he'd heard her first opponent forfeit upon realizing who he was fighting. The others had nearly been as quick.

This one made a good effort, at least. The Kaiseroinne (a term he'd only learned was the 'proper' one while living with Bulma) standing against her seemed unaffected by her previous victories - in the preliminaries or the other tournament. He towered a good two feet over her, but seemed lean and agile enough not to topple over in a moment like some of Goku's opponents had been.

It didn't really help him. He jumped forward, halving his height and making an attempt to pounce her the moment the fight began. She dropped to one knee and punched upward just as he flew overhead. The impact sent her opponent flying, of course, but he actually managed to twist and contort his body in such a way that he landed on the edge of the ring, sinking claws into the fabric of the ring rather than skid further.

It was a strangely disturbing sight, given the size of the one in question. She seemed entirely unfazed, though, simply straightening and looking over her shoulder at the tiger man.

...Actually, it was a little annoying now.

"She's not even trying." At some point, Krillin must have wandered over toward him. Goku must have finished his last battle if Krillin had decided to join him. After all, aside from a vendetta or two, he was pretty sure he was the only one who knew enough about how damn _confusing_ she was to be overly interested in her battles.

Krillin gave an irritated huff. "What's the point of _being_ here if you're not even going to try?"

"What's the point of competing if you're just going to concede the final match?" That was the _least_ annoying thing about her performance, disappearance, and then reappearance. Nothing about her made sense, and he couldn't even find enough about her to figure out an answer that _did_ make sense.

Krillin made an aggravated sound, as if he'd been following Yamcha's train of thought (somehow). "I hope I get to fight her in the first round and deal with her immediately!"

"Don't you mean 'Goku fights her in the first round'?" He glanced down at his shorter friend, unable to dismiss the small amusement that arose from the outburst. "I'm pretty sure Goku would be disappointed if he didn't get the chance to have a rematch after all this time."

" _Rematch_?! He didn't even _get_ a match! _I'm_ the one with a score to settle!"

"Settling what score?" Goku wandered over from whatever platform he must have been fighting at, expression curious. A moment later, the Kaiseroinne slammed into the wall just over the nearby leader board.

Huh. The guy must have had some pretty good moves to have lasted that long.

" _Oh_!" Goku grinned, and clenched his hands in excitement. "She just won her fight, too? Then she'll get to be in the tournament too!"

"Well, it's not like that's a _surprise."_ Krillin grumbled and crossed his arms, frowning between Ino and Goku. "She did make it through last time, too."

"And that's it for the preliminaries!" Off to the side, the announcer shouted excitedly across the hall. In the enclosed space, he didn't seem to bother with a microphone, simply shouting loud enough to be heard over the din instead. "Winners, please follow me to the tournament hall, and we'll assign you your positions! Those who were defeated, please enjoy the tournament with your complementary tickets!"

"So...I guess this is when the tournament really begins, huh?' Krillin rubbed at the back of his head, glancing around the room as the din of people filtered out of the building and slowly left the qualifiers behind.

Four of those were...himself, Goku, Krillin, and Ino.

Who were the others?

(*)

It seemed a little ridiculous, on reflection, that the runner-up of the previous tournament need to qualify to enter the next one, but...it did give her something to do which wasn't hover nearby familiar faces. Honestly, it would be a little more difficult to play a stranger when she knew the faces she faced off against so well this time. Even if 'Ino' knew them as well...

The last time hadn't exactly gone well.

The preliminaries flew by even more quickly than they had last time. In the absence of the Red Ribbon Army, it seemed no one had rushed in to fill the gap between themselves and what the tournament had to offer as 'the strongest men in the world'. Reprising her role as Ino was probably a kindness to Goku not just to give him a second chance, but because he needed all the challengers he could _find_ this time.

Next time, there might not even be a need for a tournament at all, if the population of this world didn't get inspired and start catching up.

Before long, those who failed to make it into the publicized side of the tournament left to find seats or tend their wounds, and those who remained were led away to the victor's waiting area, where they could look out and see the crowds between rounds.

Goku, Krillin, Yamcha. Those were obvious participants to make it so far. Besides them...the man who fought the boar and the other two who arrived with him. Finally, a confident looking man stood off to the side, arms crossed, mouth quirked up into a smirk. He'd been flashy in the fights she'd glimpsed of him during the preliminaries, but effective.

It seemed only human-shaped contestants made it into the tournament finals this time. The one man had _three_ eyes, much like Kaguya, but...he _appeared_ to be human otherwise. Another seemed even smaller than Krillin and Goku. It seemed unlikely that he would be younger than the two boys who participated. Which meant...it must have been another species she'd simply never seen in her travels with Goku.

Worrying. Without even knowing the species of the opponent, there was no way to know if she'd taught Goku enough to prepare him for the small one's techniques, if the two of them were matched up.

"Please step forward and take a number."

She glanced up at the organizer, letting her trail of thoughts drop for now. She'd done as well as she could in the time she had to help teach Goku, and the other two would have spent their time training under the old man for the past three years as well. They'd do fine, probably.

Though...she did wonder about the three that she and Goku met previously. Everything about them was a little...off.

She reached into the tournament box and retrieved one of the numbered spheres.

"Four."

The man who'd addressed her earlier, who'd faced off against the boar the year before, gave a small smirk and wandered over to her once she walked away from the line. "So, it seems we will be matched in the first battle."

"Will we?" She hadn't been paying attention. The results would be posted up on the wall when it was all done, after all. Keeping up with the pairings before then wasn't really necessary.

Well, at least she didn't start off facing Goku, Krillin, or Yamcha. It would have been a bit of a disappointment to fight them _immediately_.

She'd have to knock one out at the first round.

"...So I _look forward_ to our battle." There was a certain aggressiveness in his tone that may have been due to her lack of any attempt to look interested in conversation with him.

Which probably wasn't the best thing to do, really. _Something_ about him made her feel uneasy. The easiest way to get answers about a person was often just speaking to that person. She'd just been a bit...distracted. Last time, her focus had been on desperately finding any way to get home. Teaching Goku and Krillin was distant behind anything that could lead her back. Now...

She tucked short blond hair behind her ear and offered the man in front of her a polite smile. "With such a confident opponent, I'm sure the battle will be interesting."

"Confident...and _curious_. You are _quite_ the mystery, after all." He offered a smile back to her that felt just about as sincere as her own. "And what better way is there to get to know another warrior than through battle?"

Naruto said something like that before. There was an archaic shinobi belief he'd drawn it from, but she'd never been able to make it work. She could punish with her hands, she could heal with them, and she could certainly deliver a message of anger and revenge. But...communicating her thoughts or understanding with her opponent...she'd never managed it.

No matter how much she'd wanted to, she wasn't the type of person who could reach someone just with her fists. It wasn't like that would change now.

She gave a small shrug, dispelling the thoughts. "You'd be better asking."

His smile faded, but the voice of the tournament announcer cut through their conversation before he could say anything else. "The match ups have been decided! Let the finals of the twenty-second World Martial Arts Tournament get underway!"

Four...she wouldn't fight the one in front of her until the second round.

She stepped around the man and made her way up to where the others were shuffling around while the man stepped out to make announcements to the crowd.

"Who was it fighting in the first round?"

Yamcha, who had been lingering nearest to the wall that displayed the participants turned to her, arms crossed. "Number one is...uh...that guy." He pointed over her shoulder.

One of the men that she'd met in the forest. The one with three eyes.

"The other..." Yamcha gestured over to where Goku chattered excitedly with Krillin, waving his hands wildly. "is Krillin."

 


	76. Chapter 76

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She'd forgotten how annoying Yamcha's impromptu interrogation sessions could be. Surely he'd had other things to say to her the last time they'd interacted. Otherwise she'd have enjoyed punching him into a wall more than she had.

_Maybe_ it was a little disappointing he didn't get to fight Ino in the first round.

But it wasn't like he was in a hurry, anyway. At least it wasn't Goku or Yamcha, _and_ he'd get to take her down next. The best part was...he'd get to fight Goku in the finals. Honestly, he couldn't think of a better way to take the title. Even if it would have been good to get to fight Yamcha...they'd been training together for years, now.

"Hey, I guess this means you won't get to fight her this time, huh?" Krillin glanced over at his friend. "Sorry about that, but I guess she's mine this time."

Goku gave a little shrug, and then offered a bright smile. "...It's okay. We'll still get to have our fight afterward!"

...For some reason, he felt a little relieved. _Last_ time, he was pretty sure Goku had been betting against him.

Well...it wasn't like Goku to wish bad things on people out of jealousy, anyway. So there was that.

He frowned and glanced over at his future opponent. It wasn't really a surprise to see her talking with Yamcha. Since she'd reappeared it seemed like Yamcha had been _really_ keen on keeping an eye on her. Which was weird, because...weren't he and his girlfriend still together?

He squinted at the pair.

"So I'm fighting a monk, huh?"

The voice came from somewhere behind and... _almost_ startled him. Well, it wasn't like the guy screamed in his ear or something, so he definitely didn't _actually_ startle him. He'd seen a gigantic wish granting dragon appear out of thin air after boarding a flying death ship. He wasn't that easy to startle anymore.

He glanced over his shoulder.

_Man_ , though, his opponent was tall. Not even _hulking_ tall like some of his older ones, either. It looked normal on him. He was just... _tall_. It was a little bit disappointing he wouldn't get to fight the other short, bald guy in the room. If they couldn't stick together the least they could do was fight.

He scrunched his...face. "Not anymore. I left the temple _years_ ago."

The man laughed, though he really wasn't sure what part of that was funny. "Good thing. I might feel a little bad beating up a holy man."

"Yeah? Well you won't say that when it means I'm not bound by a vow of peace anymore!" The fact that the temple was populated with warrior monks, not peaceful ones, didn't need to be spoken out loud. Besides, he'd gotten way stronger as a consequence of leaving anyway, so it wasn't wrong.

"But...weren't some of your old monk friends in the last tournament? Isn't that what a 'vow of peace' means?" Goku spoke up from behind him, voice filled with confusion. "Did _they_ leave the temple too?"

" _Goku_!" Why'd he have to go and remember _that_ of all things - from _years_ ago?!

The man chuckled as he walked toward the stage. "Take a good look around before you come out. It's going to be your last."

...On _second_ thought, he was really starting to get behind fighting this guy in the first round.

"Hey, Krillin."

He glanced over at his friend. Whom he had yet to forgive for _not_ backing him up a few moments before.

"Hurry up and beat him so we can fight, okay?"

He grinned. After all the training he'd gone through? It would _definitely_ be a quick fight. " _You_ just try not to lose before I get to you, got it?"

Goku nodded in excitement, like _he_ was the one who was about to be in the opening fight of the finals. " _Yeah_!"

(*)

She'd forgotten how annoying Yamcha's impromptu interrogation sessions could be. _Surely_ he'd had other things to say to her the last time they'd interacted. Otherwise she'd have enjoyed punching him into a wall more than she had.

Now she was starting to hope she might get the chance, even if it meant Goku might lose to him.

"I wonder..." The voice of the man who she'd fight after Krillin's match broke through her thoughts (she was beginning to think Yamcha and he were in a sort of tag-team alliance). "Is it wise to disregard your opponents before battle?"

She glanced over at him. Running out to go and watch Krillin's fight _too_ quickly wouldn't be wise, anyway.

He didn't smile.

While the others in the tournament didn't really matter, considering she wasn't here to _compete_ , as much as be an obstacle for Krillin and Goku (and perhaps Yamcha, now) to overcome, perhaps she _was_ showing too much obvious favor toward those two. After all, Ino had very little reason to be overly interested in them, didn't she? "...Well, it's rather difficult to take the measure of a _stranger_ who recognizes you, isn't it?"

If he'd had his name spoken aloud, she'd simply never paid enough attention to remember, now.

For a moment, his expression turned thoughtful. Then he gave a small nod. "Very well, perhaps I _have_ been remiss in my introductions." He placed a hand to his chest and gave a shallow bow. "I am _Tao Pai Pai._ Famed hero, slayer of many a monster. Perhaps you've heard of me?"

'Famed'? She'd never heard his name before.

"Where I come from doesn't receive much interesting news."

"Ah, that's right. You're from somewhere 'small', didn't you say?" His smile sharpened. "Well, I admit it isn't what I'm most known for."

She shook her head. "This place is all of the outside world I have the time to keep track of." Traveling the world for three years might have gotten her more comfortable with it, but considering how much of wilderness and forest they ended up traveling through, it didn't acquaint her with the famed and popular people of the world any better than she'd been before.

"When our battle begins...I will be certain to let you know what it is."

She didn't miss the ominous tone to his words. It wasn't _nearly_ as important as the fact that Krillin and that man...what was his name?

"What was the name of the one Krillin's fighting?" She glanced up at Yamcha as she walked to the doorway. Goku already climbed the wall to watch the fight from above, and she wasn't about to shout a question that wasn't likely to matter for that long, anyway.

"Tenshinhan, I think. I wasn't really paying attention."

"There's no need for such formality." Tao Pai Pai must have followed her out to watch the fight as well. He appeared at Yamcha's other side, watching as the tournament announcer ran through his opening statements. "He will respond to 'Tien' just as readily. And you _may_ even have the opportunity to finish speaking it."

Yamcha rolled his eyes. "Yeah...I don't think that's gonna matter. It's his bad luck to get Krillin in his first fight."

The man chuckled. "We shall see."

" _Begin_!"

(*)

Now...

Things were _serious_. Maybe this wasn't an opponent who he was looking forward to fighting (much...), but the tournament had _really_ started.

Last time nerves and inexperience got him. He'd panicked, and he'd lost because of it.

This time...

This time _wouldn't_ be the same.

"Hey...do you want me to go easy on you?" The man, Tenshinhan, smirked down at him like it was part of some kind of a stupid inside joke. He didn't even bother to get into a defensive stance!

_Damn it_. He wasn't just going to humiliate himself this time! He'd improved by leaps and bounds now, and he was _going_ to prove it!

"Worry more about what _I'm_ gonna do to you!"

" _Begin_!"

He didn't stop to worry about what his opponent did first. _He was going to win_.

He kicked himself off of the ground, shot across the ring, and almost took his own head off with his opponent's arm. He managed to jerk his body backward, ducking under the arm that stuck in his path just in time.

Ugh-!

He hadn't really expected anyone but his friends (and that girl) to be a challenge, but...that was _fast_. A gust of air tugged at his uniform, and he barely managed to turn around in time to block a sudden kick.

So...getting _distracted_ clearly wasn't going to be an option. Man, the opponents improved just as much as _he_ did!

"Do you have prayers memorized for losing?" The man hadn't lost his smirk. He slapped the other man's arm out of the way, keeping a pressure point strike from landing on its mark.

He grit his teeth. "I'll say them for you when you're on _the ground_."

He dropped to his feet suddenly and swept the other man's feet out. This close, the much longer legs and arms of the other were getting in his way. He needed a little more space. As the other man flipped onto his back, he sprinted away, across the ring.

The ring trembled, and he leaped through the air, bouncing off of the wall still connected to the ring. Which... was... _not good_.

_Stop running_.

_Can't win by running away_.

His feet smacked against the stone of the floor hard enough to sent hair-thin cracks through the tile he'd landed on. He'd improved. He was _definitely_ going to win.

He snatched the arm that swung down at him, and let the force of the attack carry his weight into the air. As he spun, he lashed out with his leg. It connected with the side of the man's strange three-eyed face _pretty satisfyingly_ , if he did say so himself.

The man stumbled backward, and he landed once more with barely a sound.

"Yeah...sorry about this, but...I've got a tournament to win. If you think little attacks like that are gonna scare me, you're _wrong_."

The other straightened then, and his expression twisted into disdain. "Well...if you're not interested in a warm up match, then...I suppose I'll just have to start _trying_."

(*)

"This...isn't good." Yamcha sighed, arms crossed.

She glanced over at him, away from the fight. Krillin _had_ improved. His attacks were better thought out, and his strategy wasn't terrible. The one fighting with him was _clearly_ toying with him. Tenshinhan - Tien - _whoever_ , hadn't taken openings that his speed clearly demonstrated he could have used. He didn't even seem to be _pretending_ to try.

Just why hadn't she and Goku come across anyone this strong on their travels? Except the time that they briefly glimpsed _him_ , anyway.

"Who _is_ this guy, anyway?" Yamcha grumbled. "What the hell is a 'crane' school? I've never even heard of it!"

"Show a little more _respect._ " Tao Pai Pai's voice cut through the other's complaints with an open edge of irritation. "As a student of the Turtle Hermit you should _already_ know."

She frowned over at the man, and Yamcha glanced over at him as well. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Yeah..." Yamcha squinted at the "I've never heard of it."

The man's brows knit heavily, and his lips turned down into a scowl.

Before he could speak, something solid slammed into the tournament wall with enough violence that it drowned out the sound of the crowd entirely.

" _Krillin_!" Goku shouted in alarm, and she turned her head back to the fight.

Krillin stumbled drunkenly back into view, nasty wound on his head, arm hanging at his side limply. It didn't look broken from where she stood, so the impact must have temporarily paralyzed it instead. Despite that, he readied himself for another attack.

The man, Tien, struck again, leg contacting with Krillin's chest and sending him bouncing off the wall again.

Krillin stood again, swaying slightly.

"Damn it..." His opponent didn't look injured or tired at all. He needed to forfeit or _stop_ , not keep _fighting_. Not like that.

The man said something, but she didn't catch it.

Krillin jumped into the air. The other followed. His knee bent Krillin double. Blood spattered Krillin's chin and sprinkled the ground beneath.

_Stay down this time, damn it...!_

The boy dropped to the ground with a heavy thud. Though his fingers and arms twitched, he _mercifully_ made no attempt to stand again.

She grit her teeth in frustration. _Goku_ she'd trained for three years, taught him techniques and things that the old man never bothered to. Krillin...she never got the chance. Really, it wasn't a surprise, no matter how fast or strong the training made him...there was more to a fight than that.

Still...she'd hoped to at least give him a _chance_.

The man landed next to Krillin, arms crossed, and the announcer began his delayed countdown.

Without warning, his leg flashed out again, landing a vicious kick on Krillin's prone form. His tiny body flew through the air at startling speed, and with a _terrible_ crack, slammed into the stone platform that replaced the previous screen between the arena and the contestant relaxation area.

" _KRILLIN_!"

 


	77. Chapter 77

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, on the bright side, at least he could feel.

" _Krillin_!" Goku jumped from the wall so quickly that he made it to Krillin's side before she could even turn around the screen.

Krillin fell to the ground with a sound so quiet it almost seemed silent, after the terrible crack of his impact. His body crumpled on the floor at an angle that it shouldn't have been able to.

"No _don't-_!" Her hands lanced out and seized Goku's arms before he could grab his friend. He'd gained an incredible amount of strength even over the last three years. It took some considerable effort to restrain his flailing and lift him away from the other boy.

Although she could see Krillin breathing from where she stood, he made no other movement.

So...

_He's alive_.

" _Let me go_! Let me _go!_ "

"If you touch him he'll _die_!" Her voice rose sharply, snapping like a whip not to calm Goku, but to freeze Yamcha in his tracks. Though the man had been briefly paralyzed with surprise and horror, he'd just about recovered and had been about to move the boy himself.

Perhaps it was an exaggeration, but not much of one.

For the moment, at least, both of them hesitated, looking up at her in confusion.

"Can't you see? His back is broken. If you try to move him and you don't know what you're doing, you'll make it worse."

"His back...?" Goku's expression twisted to one of concern briefly, and then to anger. With a startling suddenness, he struggled free of her grasp and dropped to the ground. Rather than attempt to grab Krillin, though, he shot off toward the arena, where Tien was just beginning to walk back from.

"Goku, _no_!" Yamcha sprinted after the boy, this time struggling with him to keep him from attacking the man walking toward them. "If you attack him now, you'll be disqualified!"

She tried not to think of home. She tried not to compare _this_ world and the people in it to the people at _home_ , and the ones who were gone (not gone, not really. She'd bring them all back.) but...

She couldn't help the flicker of memory that raced through her mind. It felt like a lifetime ago when all they worried about was whether they'd make it to Chuunin rank or not. One of the fights - the one between Neji and Hinata Hyuuga - had turned out like this. She supposed Goku _was_ a bit like Lee.

But...this situation wasn't like that one at all.

The three-eyed man wouldn't learn a lesson, Naruto wasn't there to change him the way he changed everyone. This world wasn't hers, and it wouldn't play out the way it had.

"Perhaps you should ignore your friend." The man called Tao spoke finally. He'd said and done nothing since the end of the fight between Krillin and Tien. Now he simply stood next to Krillin's crumpled form, arms crossed behind himself, lips curled into a smug smirk. "If you disqualify yourself now, you won't end up in the hospital next to him."

" _You_ -" Yamcha's response cut short when the announcer raced past him, leading medics with a stretcher to where Krillin laid.

"Carefully, now! We have to get him to the hospital!"

Her fingers curled and uncurled. Right now, she could fix him. He'd still have lost the tournament, but he wouldn't need to suffer or risk further injury any longer. But...if she did...she'd reveal who she was. There wasn't any way she could continue to pretend to be 'Ino' if she revealed her healing ability.

Her clone appeared, evidently having jumped the wall and sprinted through the tournament arena.

"Hey, you can't-!"

" _I'm going with him_." It was a little odd to hear _her_ voice issuing commands from outside her own body. Despite that, it was still effective. The announcer hesitated, still uncertain of breaking whatever rule he wanted to share, but then gave a sharp nod.

"...Very well, then. If you're a friend of his, then...I guess it wouldn't be a problem going with him."

Tien lingered outside until the paramedics and the announcer filed away. It seemed much more likely that he simply didn't want to fight his way through the crowd of people than that he had any concern for the boy's health. He looked _far_ too amused and satisfied to be concerned.

"If they die after the tournament, it doesn't count as a disqualification, isn't that right?"

Tao shook his head, smug smile still in place. "Complications that occur as a result of injuries during a fight of _course_ cannot be counted against a participant. The unavoidable _can_ happen, after all."

" _Unavoidable_?" Yamcha let had Goku drop to the ground once the medics took Krillin away, and the boy chased immediately after them. He, however, had remained. "You'd _already beaten_ him!"

Tien turned his head toward Yamcha, smirk turning to a sneer of disdain. "I think you'll find that's wrong. The winner hadn't been declared. I gave him a chance to forfeit before the battle, and anyone too weak to handle this tournament and too stupid to know when to quit deserves whatever they bring on themselves."

Yamcha's lip curled into a snarl, and he took a step toward the other man. "You know what? I don't _care_ if I lose the tournament anymore. When we fight... _you're a dead man_."

The man chuckled, derisive, and walked into the waiting area.

"Now then." Tao Pai Pai spoke in a brisk manner as Goku trudged back into view. "After that little distraction, our battle should be just about to begin."

After this man...she'd advance to fight Tien next. Wherever Yamcha was placed, wherever Goku placed, it didn't matter just then. Neither one of them would get the chance to fight him.

Because before that, she'd _destroy him_.

(*)

Amazingly, of all the things he _could_ have felt, all he really did feel was _sick_. Woozy, nauseous, and...wrong. Wrong enough that if he had the energy to do it, he'd probably be panicking. At least a _little_. His body wanted to, and it had a strong argument for why.

He felt air stirring, but he didn't really feel himself moving, and that was just _jarring_.

Unfamiliar faces surrounded him until... _pink hair_?

_Sakura_?

He squinted, forcing himself to focus. What the hell was she-

The crazy woman slapped one of the white-clothed medics carrying him away as they reached out to touch his arm. " _Don't_ touch him!"

One began to protest, but a sharp glare from her silenced them.

"Wh..." wow. Trying to speak hurt _way_ more than he expected. "Are yyo-"

Her hands flattened over his stomach, and if he were capable of moving properly, he'd probably have attempted immediate escape. Having hands that could smash a giant boulder-mountain on him was _not_ something that made him feel _safe_.

He couldn't, though. All that his worry and brief flicker of panic allowed him was a brief tensing, and a flare up of pain.

Well, on the bright side, at least he _could_ feel.

Fuzzy.

He felt... _fuzzy_. Warmth bubbled up inside of him like a foreign entity, almost corporeal. A moment later, needles of pain shot through his back and legs. If they were going to hurt like that he kind of preferred not feeling them at all, or just feeling that _wrong_ feeling again, really. He probably shouldn't be picky.

Her hands lifted away from him, and it was as if she dragged away the warmth and the heat at the same time. It probably _wasn't_ what happened, but it still turned out that way. The lingering pain and discomfort faded into nothing, as well. He was _pretty_ sure, anyway, since the people carrying him _smacked the stretcher into something_. His entire body jarred.

It was mostly just annoying. He frowned up at her as she climbed into the ambulance he'd just been shoved carelessly into. "What...what did you do?"

She directed an unimpressed look toward him. Which he was _entirely_ unimpressed by. So there. "You could be a little more grateful than accusatory."

He shook his head. "No...I don't understand!" He might not have been a medical professional, but he _knew_ he was badly hurt. The force of the blow, the not-right sensation that flooded everywhere it didn't _now_ , and the reactions of everyone around him. He should have been hurt.

Yet...he just...he felt _normal_.

"Sir...be careful!" One of the medics near him chirped in worry, reaching out to try to lay him back down.

They didn't possess anywhere near the level of strength for that, and he was _still_ feeling totally unhurt. " _How_? What did you _do_?"

She squinted down at him for a moment. "...Didn't Yamcha tell you?"

Wait-what? What did Yamcha have to do with it? What did he _miss_ while he was busy seeing stars and regret?! "Tell me _what_?"

"...I have a technique that can heal."

"You can _what_?"

He did not say that. He _would_ have said it, but the medic near him shouted it first. Who...was still there, even if they'd given up trying to make him lie back down.

It was a fair thing to say all the same though, because... " _What_?"

(*)

Krillin's injury had delayed the tournament a bit. The two competitors about to go into the ring looked like they were one snarky comment away from _not_ waiting, so as much as he still struggled with the urge to chase after his friend and fellow student...it was for the best that the next round finally began.

Well, he still had two fights away from his own, so he _might_ be able to make it there and back...

He shook his head, and fingers dug into his arms.

_No_.

He needed to focus.

This next fight wasn't that important...but the one after that. He glanced over to where his other friend stood. Goku glared over at the bald man who chose not to observe the battle outside. Though he hadn't said much, he'd been glaring at Tien most of the time since returning from Krillin's side.

Goku...probably could beat the guy just fine. If he improved as much as it looked like he had, he might even have less trouble with it.

But...

He didn't _want_ to beat him. He wouldn't _just_ knock him out. The ones who were too stupid to quit got what was coming to them, right? That guy had a _hell_ of a lot more coming to him than just _losing the tournament_. Next time Goku could fight Krillin, next time Goku would probably win the tournament.

He'd probably get banned from future tournaments if he intentionally killed another competitor. Might do it if he just intentionally _crippled_ another competitor.

So it was better it be him, not Goku.

So it _would_ be him.

Besides, between the two of them, he was the outlaw with the rich girlfriend. He could live without the tournament. This place might have been one of his dreams, but in the end...what the hell were those worth without the friends to share them with?

Anyway.

He forced his thoughts away from Tien, from the fight that loomed ahead of him which wasn't as much a _fight_ anymore as _revenge_. This way, at least, he could hold it over Krillin's head that _he_ beat Goku for a few years until the next tournament rolled around.

That might have been a little worth it, too.


	78. Chapter 78

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Somehow, through all of the righteous anger she felt about Krillin, she hadn't entirely given up on why she was here in the first place. After three years, maybe she felt a little possessive. She wanted Goku to have the chance to show off his skills. She wanted Goku to fight and to get as far as he could in the tournament. The one who hurt Krillin wouldn't take that away. He'd already done enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually really wanted to give Tao a bigger role in the tournament, but outside of the anime (which just extends it bizarrely for no reason) there's not much room for it. He'll just have to go on the shelf with the other characters I'll work in at some other time.

She couldn't remember what she'd been thinking about. Whatever her goal was, whatever plans she'd been forming in her head, she actually couldn't remember them at all.

Before the brutality of the previous match, she knew she'd been thinking of what to do with the rest of the tournament. Winning wasn't something she had any interest in even before then. It didn't mean anything to her, and as 'Ino' it wouldn't _do_ anything for her, either. She couldn't remember what she'd planned to do about that, anymore, or if she'd come up with an answer at all.

She'd certainly thought about a potential rematch with Krillin, thought it did necessitate a disappointment for Goku that he wouldn't get to have one. She hadn't come in to be defeated _that_ easily, after all.

In his fight, Krillin did _well_. His technique had improved, and his strategy had, too. He'd conquered his nerves and fought with all his might instead of panicking. He really did improve over the past three years. Maybe she'd looked forward to seeing what he could do against her.

"It's a shame to have such a small arena to fight within." The man across from her gave a stiff bow, and settled into a stance that could have been either offensive or defensive. It certainly wasn't a _bad_ position to stand in. It didn't really matter. "My regular fare is... _far_ less restrictive than this, and I've found it to be much more fun to have more room to move around with."

"Yeah...sorry, but I'm not interested in fun right now. You're just in my way."

"Your _disrespect_..." He scowled across the ring at her, politeness melting away as the announcer warmed up the start of their match. "I've put up with enough of it since we've met. I'll put you back in the place you _belong_!"

" _Begin_!"

He shot from the ground. The tile cracked under his feet where he'd stood.

Given how he'd moved up until then, the speed was...actually surprising. Unprepared for the sudden assault, she only barely managed to dodge to the left of the man's incoming knee. The pink overcoat he wore fluttered in the air behind him. As bright as it was, it was almost certainly meant to be a distraction, moving so quickly through his opponent's vision that it almost demanded their attention and gaze, rather than allow it to be on _him_.

The back of his arm collided with her wrist, and the thunderous impact echoed off of the walls separating the participants from the observers.

Quick.

He was _very_ quick.

She snatched his arm as he pulled away. In a quick movement, she flipped him off of his feet, and flung him toward the edge of the ring.

Fingers collided with tile, leaving indentations in stone, and narrowly stopped himself from leaving the ring. The momentum he had left flipped him upright again, standing this time at the edge of the arena. Making a wrong move while attacking him at such a tempting position would _undoubtedly_ end up with her on the grass instead.

As a shinobi, she had plenty of tricks. Flying was not among them.

"So the tales of your strength were true." He rubbed at his forearm with his free hand, walking leisurely away from the cracked and damaged tiles. "Even if you don't have any respect, this might still be _amusing_."

She moved first this time.

Air whipped by her face, stirring the strands of fake blonde hair she'd given herself as her disguise. Before she quite reached him, he back flipped away, bouncing off of the wall that served as the ring's only safe barrier and lancing forward, fingers outstretched threateningly.

She dropped to her knee and kicked him squarely in the stomach.

He slammed back into the wall. Without bouncing this time.

"You should listen to the advice of your friend. Quit. And _get out of my way_."

If she thought about it long, it was ridiculous to try to hold up her act. Pretending to be a stranger wasn't even her first priority now, and yet...if she revealed her full strength and brushed her opponent aside in her rush to get to Tien, she wouldn't be able to convincingly hold back once she fought Goku.

Somehow, through all of the righteous anger she felt about Krillin, she hadn't _entirely_ given up on why she was here in the first place. After three years, maybe she felt a little possessive. She _wanted_ Goku to have the chance to show off his skills. She wanted Goku to fight and to get as far as he could in the tournament. The one who hurt Krillin wouldn't take that away. He'd already done enough.

The man stumbled to his feet once more. "I wonder...did you improve over the years since the last tournament? You gave up _so easily_ before."

Before she could make any kind of response, he sprang toward her again, a blur of speed and color.

She snatched the arm that chopped down at her and spun her arm, flipping him through the air to the ground. Before he landed, though, he curled into a ball and twisted himself around. His feet landed firmly on tile, rather than his back, and a moment later she found herself propelled through the air.

Really, it was her own fault not being prepared and anchoring herself on the ground.

"If you intend to forfeit again, you may as well do it now."

Her shoulder contacted with the ring, but it did little to slow the momentum built from both his attack and the flip he turned against her. If he were a bit stronger, or the angle slightly less fortunate, she might have ended up flung _right_ out of the ring. As it was...her hand slapped down on the tile as she moved. Her chakra spiked and stone chipped and cracked as the force of her movement pulled at the platform beneath her.

"As I intend to _win_ , you can even be assured that I will seek out your _revenge_." He stood at a safe distance still, clearly tensed, ready to attack if she provided any opening.

And he _lied_. She already knew those two were associates. Even if he intended to win, he had no interest in _revenge_ , even as a token effort.

And she _really_ didn't care. She told him he was in her way. She was here for _Goku_. For Krillin and for Yamcha, and for all of their ridiculous, stupid hang ups over a tournament that didn't even manage to accurately hold the most powerful and dangerous people inside it. It wasn't important. It was almost useless. There wasn't any _point_.

And his friend _almost killed Krillin for it_.

She was _thoroughly_ sick of this tournament.

She shoved herself to her feet. He responded immediately, leaping forward and sinking his fist into her stomach. An instant later he followed through with a fierce headbutt, fracturing her nose, sending a flood of blood down her mouth and chin.

She slammed an open palm into the side of his head.

He crashed down as she had, sliding across the tile at high speed, much too quick for him to stop before he'd topple over it. Fingers outstretched, he stabbed his hand into the tile, crushing stone and digging a trench in rock and tile as he slowed his progress to a stop, much as she had.

"I _don't need your help_."

His grin turned feral. "Now...saying something like that is _poor_ foresight."

He jumped into the air, managing impressive height from simply standing in place. It was his own mistake, though. She had a rather mean uppercut, and he seemed intent to move himself directly into her path. At least it would end the battle completely.

She turned her gaze up at him, squaring her stance in preparation. His leg and fist extended, ready to drop a piercing kick on her (that would never get the chance to land).

A moment before he would have contacted, before she would have struck, one of his arms flicked toward her, closed fist opening all at once. Rock dust and pebbles gathered from his slide shot toward her in a stinging cloud of bluish-white.

" _Ugh_ -!"

For a moment, irritation and pain replaced her sight, blurring her vision into darkness and blue.

His attack landed solidly into her chest, sending painful creaking through all of her bones, and knocking her careening backward. On memory and sense of touch, she dropped to her knee, chakra gripping through her feet and one hand to stop her movement.

Behind her, her furthest foot hung just barely over the edge.

Blinking a few times would probably clear her vision perfectly well, it was only dust after all. Even if it managed to do any damage to her eyes due to poor luck, she'd be able to heal them almost immediately.

Rather than wait for that, she charged up a surge of chakra in her right fist, and shot it upward.

Her bare fist contacted with his slippered foot with so much force that the announcer somewhere off to the side gave a yelp as the gust of displaced air crashed against his form and startled him. Of course her opponent wouldn't do the obvious and easy thing: attacking her on the ground when she was momentarily blinded, when she'd be weakened and distracted if she tried to clear her vision, when she was right on the edge of the ring.

He was smart and cocky and _proud_.

His weight and momentum wasn't _nearly_ enough of a match for an angry, chakra-charged fist. She felt the wave of impact wash over her. The bones of his feet in direct contact with her fist shattered. The force of his leg destabilized against her arm.

Her vision restored itself just in time to watch the man slam through the spectators wall into the crowd.

The damage done to her arm by his attack re-knit itself as she stood, and she scrubbed at her eyes with the back of her other hand. Really. As he was the associate of the _other_ one. The one who'd pointlessly brutalized an opponent of his because the battle had yet to 'finish', she probably should have expected _dirty_ tactics from him.

If she hadn't made a lucky guess about how he'd take advantage of the situation...things could have ended much worse. There wouldn't be much more she could have done than fight Tien _outside_ of a tournament match. And then any hope of ever getting Goku that rematch (or Krillin, or Yamcha, she supposed) would have vanished entirely. At best.

"-dramatic victory, Ino Yamanaka advances to the semi-finals!"

The crowd cheered around her. Goku's excitement looked subdued and entirely distracted, as his gaze kept flickering from the ring off into the distance where Krillin had gone. Even though she was fairly certain he was the next one to fight, his concern for Krillin still almost completely overruled that. With her shadow clone and the condition he was in when he left, Krillin was probably fine by now. She still couldn't really say anythng. Not as she was now.

It didn't really matter, though. By the time Goku got to fighting Yamcha or her, Krillin would be back in the audience healthy and refreshed. And Tien...his matter would already be _dealt with_.


	79. Chapter 79

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You all might as well give up now anyway. No matter what you do, Tien's the one who's going to be winning the tournament."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The story is now a year old. Fourteen more to go!

The next fight was apparently Goku against some other person she didn't recognize. He was tall and scrawny, but more importantly he was cocky. He hadn't even gone to watch any of the previous fights, and showed no concern for the outcome of them, no matter how brutal.

If he _had_ been paying attention, he likely wouldn't have been so carefree. As it was...he didn't take the tournament seriously enough to be a threat to Goku. She had no doubt that Goku would be able to deal with him, especially with the motivation he currently had to advance through the tournament.

"You're distracted."

She blinked, and looked over her shoulder. Surprisingly, instead of finding some part of the room to best glower at Tien threateningly, Yamcha stood only a few steps from her. Which didn't really make any sense. It wasn't like they had some sort of grand rivalry that would excuse her keeping his attention even over the revenge he currently wanted out of the _other_ participant in the tournament.

"What?"

"You fought _terribly_ out there."

She squinted at him. "If you're trying to turn something around on me, I _did_ win that fight."

"Barely." He huffed and frowned at her, crossing his arms. "The next person you fight is that Tienshinhan guy."

Was _that_ what his concern was about? She knew he wanted a match up with the man - he'd made that extremely clear - but it was a waste of his time and effort to be concerned about it. She'd deal with Tien first. "I'm not throwing the fight so you can live out a revenge fantasy."

"You're gonna have to hope _he_ throws it if you don't snap out of it."

"...What?" She hadn't even done _badly_ last time, and he really needed to worry more about Goku's blatant seething. And it seemed pretty unlikely he _wanted_ her to win the fight, under the circumstances.

"Look...it's obvious if you let your guard down he'll do just as bad or worse to you as he did to Krillin. He's a _monster_ , and after you took out one of his associates, you're not gonna be on his 'good' list."

She...

She shook her head. Distracted? She wasn't _distracted_ , she was..motivated. Focused.

On things that weren't her last fight. Being here wasn't even her idea in the first place, but...what happened to Krillin took up most of her thoughts during the last round. Maybe she would have done better, reacted better, and struggled less if she _had_ been better focused on the fight instead.

It probably wasn't an issue when it came to fighting Tien, though. After all, with _him_ it was personal.

She crossed her arms and sighed. Even so...an emotional fight wouldn't be the best answer. Not in a tournament setting, at least. If she got distracted, she could end up knocked out of the ring, and then there'd be nothing more she could do. And then it would be up to Goku. Or Yamcha might try something foolish.

Besides paying him back for what he did, she had to ensure she protected the others. A level head would be the only way to do that.

She'd always been the worst at controlling her emotions, though. She pressed her lips together in frustration

"You've got a lot of concern for someone you don't know that well."

_Really_?

She glared over at him, then. "He could have been _killed_. Am I supposed to only care about the well-being of people who are my friends? It's against the rules to kill in the middle of a match."

"Well, you're about to risk _yours_ being concerned about it." He frowned down at her, determined and unyielding despite her glare. "If you're gonna do that for someone you don't even know...at least make sure you have a chance at surviving that attempt."

"You don't have to worry about that." A gentle, youthful voice cut through her thoughts and anything else Yamcha might have tried to say on the matter. "He's not so unskilled that he'll kill you on accident."

The smallest companion of Tien stood a short distance from them, smiling up at her without any warmth. His skin lacked any kind of color, save for the red stained into his cheeks, looking all the more vibrant for being against the ceramic white of his flesh.

He gave a light giggle. "But this is a dangerous tournament, you know. If you're afraid of a lasting injury, maybe you should just drop out now."

Yamcha gave an angry growl. "If you're his messenger boy you tell _him_ that."

"Oh, it doesn't really matter what _you_ want to say to him anyway." The boy - whose name she'd forgotten - stuck out his tongue at Yamcha. "You won't ever be fighting him."

" _Yeah_? Well that's a little too much confidence to fit in someone so _small_!"

"Maybe you should have told your friend that."

She grabbed Yamcha's shoulder before he could make a lunge at the smaller boy. Their match would be right after Goku's, anyway. Getting disqualified or carried away so soon before then would be a waste of his years of training. Especially when he really _wouldn't_ be fighting Tien. " _Focus_."

He glared over at her for a moment longer, and then Goku trotted back into the waiting room. His opponent didn't follow after him. "Your fight is next."

Yamcha grit his teeth a moment, and then sighed, finally relaxing in her grip. "Whatever. The fight won't last long anyway."

"You're right, it won't." The boy turned on his heel and walked away toward the ring. As he did, he called back over his shoulder. "You all might as well give up now anyway. No matter what you do, Tien's the one who's going to be winning the tournament."

(*)

So maybe he _was being_ a bit hypocritical. But it was easier to call out Ino for being distracted than focus on his own. Besides that, she would be fighting Tien first.

Whoever she was, wherever she came from, she definitely wasn't one of Master Roshi's students. The way that Tien took out Krillin...anyone standing in the way between that man and the finals would be in danger. It was _almost_ enough to convince him to pick a fight early just to keep that guy out of the tournament.

But...no. No way.

If he didn't do it on the ring, it wouldn't mean anything.

Before him, though...there were two other opponents. The friend of Tien...and Goku.

He frowned.

"If it makes you feel better, I'll make sure your friend won't get to fight Tien either." On the bizarre boy's face, his smile looked a little bit _creepy_. Chaotsu, that was his name, wasn't it?

"Yeah...thanks, but I'm gonna take care of that myself."

" _Begin_!" The voice of the tournament announcer echoed off of the walls of the arena, and the crowd gave such an enthusiastic shout that it nearly drowned out the last of his single word.

The boy didn't even move a muscle.

Chaotsu _rocketed toward him anyway_.

"Gah-!" He stumbled a step backward. The move hadn't even been overtly _hostile_ , but it just looked so _creepy_ that it unsettled him anyway. How was he moving without _using anything_ to do it?!

Once again, without visibly _jumping_ , the boy just lifted off from the ground. At his face. He narrowly managed to smack a tiny hand out of the way before it connect with him.

_Damn it, focus_!

Whatever the hell the kid was using as a trick, he couldn't let himself get unsettled and distracted that easily!

He shifted back a step, steadying himself, and caught the next kick, grasping the boy by the ankle. Using the momentum of the attack, he twisted himself around and flung the small figure into the wall dividing the arena from the waiting area.

It was a little bit disappointing Chaotsu didn't just break through the wall and land out of bounds right then. The resounding crash that echoed through the area when he connected with the wall was still satisfying.

...The kid didn't even look mildly inconvenienced when he dropped back to the stone tiles of the ring. "If that's all you've got, it'll be safer for you if you just quit now."

He hissed, gripping his hands into fists. "I didn't ask for your _advice_."

Once more, the kid shot through the air, propelled like he'd just jumped off of a spring board.

This time, he felt better prepared. He jumped backward, out of the height of the 'jump's arc, and kicked...at air. Chaotsu somehow managed to _swerve_ in air out of the way. Smooth, quick, and way more extreme than should have been possible.

"Wha-?"

He flung himself almost double backward to avoid a mid-air sweeping kick.

And...Chaotsu just...

Hovered there. In air.

_What_?

At least it didn't hurt as much as he'd half expected it to when the kid landed a cheap shot on him in the middle of his confusion.

(*)

" _Amazing_!" The man off in the corner near the crowd actually managed to shout loudly enough to be heard even over the crowd's sounds of shock and excitement. "Chaotsu is actually managing to _float in air_! I've never seen anything like it!"

She _had_ seen people float in the air before, but...she'd never understood the jutsu behind it, even when she'd asked about it. And as far as she understood, it was bloodline related.

Could ki actually be manipulated in a complex enough way to mimic advanced jutsu?

"How...?"

"Surely _you_ have a few secret techniques of your own?"

That voice was...

She turned a cold glare toward the man that stood near her. He _towered_. He didn't intimidate her in the least. Jiraiya had towered over the Lady Tsunade, and she easily put him in his place whenever necessary. This one wasn't nearly as skilled or experienced as a member of the sannin.

"I wasn't speaking to you."

"Maybe you should be. After all, I'm your next opponent. Which one wins this battle won't matter to you, because you won't be fighting either of them."

"Keep your cockiness to yourself." She crossed her arms and turned her attention back to the ring. Whatever he wanted to say wasn't important. Any chance he had to share his _thoughts_ , he'd thrown away in his battle against Krillin.

The small one - Chaotsu, apparently - hovered higher in the ring now. Fortunately, he spoke loudly enough for his voice to carry even as far as she was.

"I hoped it would be more fun fighting you, but you're boring." His finger pointed down at Yamcha.

For a horrible moment, she thought he might use something like the atomic deconstruction jutsu she'd witnessed in the war.

Bright light shone from his outstretched finger, and he shouted an unfamiliar term. Rather than a cube of something enveloping Yamcha, though, ki shot out in a straight line toward where Yamcha stood. Fortunately, he jumped backward out of the way before it could hit, and the bright energy splashed against the stone, singing it but not destroying it.

Whatever attack it was, clearly the small one didn't intend to kill him with it. For now, at least.

While the first attack took a moment to charge, he followed with a rain of other shots, chasing Yamcha across the ring and back, nearly cornering him out of it once or twice. Any time that Yamcha paused and attempted to jump up toward him, the rain of beams would singe an arm or a leg, causing him to stumble in pain instead.

She grit her teeth. "I thought this was a _martial arts tournament_."

"Ki is the natural extension of training one's body to perfection." Tien gave a huff of smug amusement. "Or perhaps you should petition to be disqualified for using it to stop yourself from sliding out of the ring?"

She bit her cheek in irritation. Using chakra as a utility was an entirely different matter than finding a way to _fly_ and shoot at their opponent while out of range! "For being _perfect_ , his physical skills are _pathetic_. The first time he ends up in a position where he can't run away, he'll be crushed by a civilian."

Tien grunted in irritation. Perhaps 'civilian' wasn't the correct term, but...it seemed it communicated what she wanted anyway. A moment later, he raised his voice "Chaotsu-"

Yamcha landed a few feet from where they stood, at the wall where he'd knocked Chaotsu into earlier. He ducked down briefly, snatching up a chunk of stone which had broken free from the impact, and flung it behind him toward his enemy with visible might.

The stone spun like a disc through the air toward the small figure at an impressive speed, and for a moment the action left the other stunned, frozen in surprise rather than reacting immediately.

Before it could reach him, he shot another beam into it. Stone and debris exploded outward in every direction, even raining sharp pebbles into the observation area. Some of the rocks struck him as well, causing a brief flinch of discomfort.

Yamcha sprung from his place into the air, hands clasped at his side.

" _Ka..."_

She recognized the gesture. And the word that he shouted.

"Oh!" Goku gave an excited shout, for the moment too distracted with Yamcha's match to be glaring at Tien. "He finally learned the Kamehameha!"

Light enveloped both of his hands as the dust began to clear, and he shot his arms forward with a final " _Ha_!"

" _Chaotsu_!" Tien shouted a word of warning toward his companion, but it did nothing to break him out of his surprise, at least not in time. The brilliant beam of light enveloped the small figure and erupted in a flare of energy so bright that much of the crowd lifted their hands and looked away to shield their eyes.

As the light faded, the small figure plummeted into the crowd at high speed. The crowd screamed as he crashed into the ground, and Yamcha landed back on his feet with surprising grace.

Tien gave an irritated growl. "I've told him to pay _attention_." He sighed after a moment, and then turned to walk back into the waiting area. "Maybe I should have picked _that_ one."


	80. Chapter 80

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You wanted a challenge?" She bit her cheek, struggling to contain the spike of rage that shot through her at the thought. For a challenge, he'd endangered Krillin's - an innocent, uninvolved person - life. Hateful. She cracked her knuckles and settled into a prepared stance. "You should have just asked."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is fun ahead in the next arc! Are we looking forward to it?
> 
> (The Tsuchikage's jutsu isn't a bloodline jutsu, but Sakura has no way of knowing that.)

Debris from the explosion blew past where she stood as the air settled. Rather than wait for the announcer to finish calling them out, Tien already walked toward the damaged ring. Likely, it was just an excuse to face Yamcha, if his comment from a moment before was any indication.

The man in question glared at him as they passed each other. Fingers clenched into fists...but Yamcha walked by without lashing out after all. He really was determined to wait until their fight. That was just fine with her. He wouldn't get the chance to have the match at all, and that protected him from any stupid plans of his.

"Shouldn't you be thinking of your girlfriend?"

He hesitated next to where she stood, expression turning from simmering anger into surprised confusion. "Huh?"

"You've still got one, right?"

"Wh-what's that supposed to-"

She crossed her arms with a sigh and spoke over him before he could stutter himself into complete gibberish. "Whatever you're planning, the first thing you should think about is your safety. And then you should think about how your choice in your battle is going to affect her. Caring about what's best for them is what you're supposed to do with someone you love, right?"

Finally, she heard the name she'd assumed called to the stage.

None of this really had any impact on the one...any of the people _she_ loved. It didn't matter if she were hurt somehow when she could heal. It didn't matter if they banned her from this tournament. She had freedom that the ones from this world _didn't_.

She couldn't help being tempted to abuse it to its fullest extent.

The cement and stone under her feet was cracked and uneven from the previous battles. He looked as comfortable on it as he did anywhere else. He didn't even make an effort to look defensive - he simply stood with his arms crossed and a confident smile.

"Is this the fight you were looking for?"

Tien lifted his shoulder slightly. "Master Tao was much more interested in you specifically. But not many could survive a battle with him, let alone win one. That's a good enough challenge for me."

"You wanted a challenge?" She bit her cheek, struggling to contain the spike of rage that shot through her at the thought. For a _challenge_ , he'd endangered Krillin's - an innocent, uninvolved person - life. Hateful. She cracked her knuckles and settled into a prepared stance. "You should have just asked."

His smile curled into a smirk. "You weren't listening. _Now_ you're motivated."

She kicked off from the ground the moment the announcer called the match.

Despite his relaxed stance, his kick swept up toward her just as swiftly as she moved at him. She grabbed a hold of his ankle, and the force of their strikes spun the both of them in a circle. In the few moments they spun together, his fists flashed in a rapid and erratic pattern. Each blow she smacked away sent a violent shock wave through the arena, crack of flesh against leather and skin echoing off of each surface around them.

She skidded backward as he jumped away from her. The uneven ground helped, actually. Where the damage was, it kept her from sliding too quickly or too far without needing to expend extra effort in slowing herself down.

She lunged forward again, this time contacting his gut with her knee, and kicked him violently into the observing wall. He impacted with enough force that it nearly pushed him through. Fortunate that it didn't. A quick loss might have been more humiliating for him, but it wouldn't be satisfying. Neither for her, nor for the two who wished to avenge Krillin.

"Huh." He brushed himself off once he managed to land back on the ring proper. " _That's_ a little more like the strength I'd heard about."

"Maybe I'd have something to say about yours, but I've never heard anything about _you_." Fame wasn't supposed to be the goal of any ninja, and it meant less to her as someone she wasn't in a world she didn't belong than it would have in her own world. But...as determined as these men were to face her...all she'd ever heard of them was a brief encounter against a boar.

Boars didn't do well fighting back.

"Does it matter if you did?" He shrugged and started toward her again, deceptively slow and relaxed. "I'll just be another person who's won the tournament instead of you."

Before she could respond, he vanished.

Air stirred across her face and she twisted at her waist, lifting her arm just in time to block a dropping elbow of his. The crash of the impact vibrated across the stone and cracked corner tiles. She seized his elbow with her open hand, and slammed him bodily down into the ground.

Not that he'd ever beat her, but there was no way he'd succeed in defeating _Goku_. She wouldn't _let_ him.

"Forget it!"

He moved quickly, even on the ground. Before she could ever impact her foot with his stomach, he managed to curl up and block her attack with elbows and knees.

Just like anyone else who'd tried that strategy, though, the explosion of her chakra upon impact immediately uprooted him and sent him careening out of the ring.

Before he could crash into the wall though, he abruptly...stopped. The crowd gasped in awe, the announcer gave a shout and a cry of shock. He...floated there, unmoving, expression of concentration smoothing out into confidence again.

The same jutsu that Chaotsu had.

Of course sibling students would both have something that useful.

She grit her teeth in irritation. Flight made the battle _and_ defeating him more difficult.

"You're gonna make me have to actually try, huh?" Tien grinned at her, voice and smile carrying an edge of savagery to it. Rather than make any attempt to 'walk' back, he floated toward the ring again with no apparent physical movement. "With all the poor performances so far, I was starting to think I wouldn't get to."

"Did you think it would be easy after you hurt a friend of mine?" She took a step toward him, watching him for a reaction. "Fighting for other people always makes someone stronger."

It was a belief Naruto pushed, originally. She didn't ever know for sure how, but she'd been told he learned it from Haku and Zabuza. At first, she'd mostly written it off as one of his quirks, but...it was true. Fighting to protect her friends, striving to get better to make sure she could protect them and keep them safe, it made her stronger than she'd ever been able to imagine before.

Fighting to protect the friends she'd made - even if they didn't know it right now - could only mean she'd be stronger still.

"If that's the kind of belief you've got, its no wonder you managed to land second place against a bunch of weaklings."

His image blurred briefly, before she managed to track his movement again. Before she could do much more than turn toward him, he hovered over her, arm pulled back to strike. A piercing drive of one of his hands slammed into her shoulder, undoubtedly in an attempt to dislocate it. Five more followed into her chest, and knocked her backward through the air.

This time, he didn't wait for her to land. A brilliant beam of light shot toward her, and she only just managed to bounce herself off of a jutting bit of stone well enough to singe her side with it. It exploded harmlessly against the wall of the nearby crowd, and a few of the observers scrambled backward, screaming.

He'd moved up to offensive ki, then?

She caught herself with one hand on the stone, and used her remaining momentum to slam her heel down onto his head as he reached her once more. He crashed into the arena with a fairly satisfying sound.

"You think I'd _let_ someone like you beat me?" She glared down at him as she stood herself up again. He knelt on his hands and knees still, looking dazed from her attack - or the impact of his face with the ground. "You're not moving past this round."

He lunged suddenly toward her, shaking off what must have been a false confusion, and followed his sudden movement with a powerful looking uppercut.

She punched directly down into it.

The ring exploded outward in a spectacular shower of rock shards.

(*)

Honestly, she felt a little conflicted just sitting in the audience and watching the tournament when Krillin had been rushed off in critical condition like that. True, he'd pretty much been more of a temporarily traveling partner to her than...strictly a _friend_...but it wasn't like she didn't worry about him anyway!

Despite Sakura muscling _her_ way into the convoy, though, it wasn't like she could say anything to get them to let her go with anyway. 'Let me come with, I know him' wasn't a good argument, and bringing up the pirate cove thing was probably better just to _not_ do.

Well...Yamcha had another fight or two after this, and they'd be right in a row! Once the battles were done, she could go and check on Krillin in the hospital.

She bit her lip and stole a glance toward the competitor's section of the tournament. Ino and Tienshinhan were still fighting pretty intensely in the ring. Maybe if she won, Yamcha wouldn't have to fight him at all. Or Goku.

After what he'd done to Krillin...it didn't even matter what they wanted! She didn't want either of them fighting that _monster_. Even Goku, with all of his strength and frankly inhuman durability.

"I wouldn't worry about it." The old man Roshi spoke, voice calm but...close enough to be heard over the din of the crowd and the chaos of the battle in the ring. "I think you should have faith in her still."

"Huh?" She frowned down at him. "But there's no guarantee, right? She's good, but she's not on Yamcha or Goku's level, and this guy beat Krillin easily."

The light of one of Tienshinhan's attacks glinted off of the old man's dark glasses. "She's stronger than you think. And she's just as determined to make sure Yamcha and Goku don't risk themselves against him as we are."

That girl? She frowned at the blonde who flashed back and forth across the ring, trading blows she could barely figure out with the bald man. She looked...a little familiar. She'd been in the previous tournament, hadn't she? But that didn't really mean anything when it came to Yamcha and Goku's safety.

"How would you think _that_?"

"Er..." Roshi mumbled something that the crowd smothered out, before he spoke up again. "It's...a guess. She doesn't seem like a bad person."

She couldn't help but scoff at _that_. Like the pervert who couldn't even ride his _own_ Nimbus Cloud had a good moral radar! Maybe somewhere in that head of his neglected and thrown away years ago...

She squinted at the pair on the ring. Ino briefly pinned Tienshinhan down against the ring with her knee in his back, and then _something_ happened, and his forearm pressed against her throat and shoved her against it instead. In that position...

She had an idea about why he seemed to approve of the woman out there so much.

"Her good points aren't _size D_ s are they?"

"Not at all! They're _bigger_ than-" He cut himself off abruptly, catching himself and her 'trap'.

Not soon enough to avoid her hand contacting with the back of his head.


	81. Chapter 81

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was a little bit satisfying to actually hit him after having to dodge around his attacks - and having him dodge most of hers - for so long. That it was a full body collision wasn't really enough of a demerit to matter.

She brushed away a trail of blood that ran from her split lip down her chin. Of course she could have healed it, but it wasn't necessary. Showing off that she had healing abilities wouldn't be the best idea. As it was she already had to discard most of her reservations about holding back to hide her identity from Goku. Revealing her regenerative or healing abilities would just make it worse.

Besides. He looked bloodier than she did. His cheeks were bruised and cut open, wrists and knuckles scraped raw and bleeding, and by the look of the bruising, something in one of his feet were probably at _least_ fractured.

It might or might not have something to do with why he floated over the ring now.

"Do you think you'll be as good at dodging as that other guy?" He smirked down at her, well out of reach.

She glared up at him, one hand clenched into a fist. "Want to see what will happen to you when I do?"

He laughed, pointing down at her with one hand. "I'd _love_ to see what you think you can do."

She flipped backward out of the way of one of the beams that Chaotsu littered the arena with the previous battle. Unlike those, the stone and cement shattered outward where it contacted, sending a spray of debris through the air and leaving a small impact crater.

Letting him pelt the arena with those would make future rounds more difficult.

He wasn't as fragile as Chaotsu. If she'd ever doubted that, their battle so far made that clear. Even if he didn't expect her to possess a technique like Yamcha's, there wasn't any guarantee he wouldn't recover and continue the fight just the same.

She needed to find a way to get up there. Or drag him down for good.

Just _how_ did he bend ki in such a way that he _flew_? It was such a complex and secret jutsu, how could someone who only used ki manage to master it? How did anyone learn advanced jutsus if he were using chakra? It didn't make any _sense_.

"Hey, look out!" Yamcha shouted from behind her. Not far. Tien had been pushing her back toward the wall with the rain of beams.

A larger one shot down at her. If she dodged wrong, she'd land outside the barrier of the arena. If she did it right...it would back her into a corner and make the next dodge almost impossible, and a hit would probably be worse.

_Damn_...

She grit her teeth.

Her seal flared to life, facing safely away from Goku. For this, she needed much more chakra than usual. If it worked at all.

There wasn't time for doubt.

She took a half step forward, and _punched_ the beam of energy with all of her strength.

Her scream of effort echoed almost as loudly in her ears as the explosion.

Brilliant light flared in her eyes, and the beam scattered in several directions around her: the wall, the ring, the grass. The air between her hand and the blast lit on fire briefly, before the shock wave smothered it out again. Her body ached, her lungs burned.

The man in the air looked genuinely surprised.

In truth, the air and her chakra disrupted his ki. She could never have summoned enough ki to disrupt his, not on short notice, but she knew _very_ well how easily it could be disrupted and lose cohesion. Chakra and Ki were merely two forms of the same thing, so...well, it was lucky her guess worked, anyway.

But it probably _looked_ like she just punched his attack into nothingness.

She seized the opportunity provided by his brief surprise. Two quick steps, and a powerful jump closed the distance between them _quite_ well.

(*)

" _What_!?" His voice might have cracked a little there, but honestly. It took a moment for him to even manage to _say_ anything. Did that...? What just _happened_?

He glanced over at his companion briefly, as if the younger one might have a better answer.

Goku gripped onto the top of the broken wall, as if he were either contemplating running out there right _then_ , or that he was attempting to suppress that urge. Rather than confused, he merely looked excited and impressed.

...It wasn't all that surprising a reaction from him.

" _I wanna learn how to do that_!"

He squinted up at the woman. She'd made a pretty impressive leap for barely moving before she went. The performance she showed today was...on a different level from the tournament before. This time...she didn't seem to be holding back.

But why not? Just anger? Over someone she barely even _knew_?

"...I'd like to know that, too." It _was_ pretty awesome. Punching away an energy blast would be pretty useful if future tournaments decided to all turn out like this one.

Or another evil army wanted to collect dragonballs some day.

But he'd never heard Master Roshi mention anything about that kind of thing. Some strange woman who _wasn't_ an ex-student of the old man (apparently Sakura was the only female he'd taught. Aside from a half-hearted and ultimately failed attempt with the crazy bandit woman). If she wasn't a Turtle student, what student _was_ she, that she had so much skill, and even techniques he didn't recognize _?_

All that and he still couldn't even figure out where she was from, or _anyone_ who knew her.

Who the hell _was_ she?

(*)

It was a little bit satisfying to actually hit him after having to dodge around his attacks - and having him dodge most of hers - for so long. That it was a full body collision wasn't really enough of a demerit to matter. Her force and weight knocked him off balance, sending both of them spinning through the air.

Toward the ground, but it wasn't as if he wasn't already quite a distance from it when they started.

She managed to land two punches before he twisted and sent her spinning away from him.

If she lost control, it would send her spiraling out of the ring, and there'd be nothing she could do.

She clasped a hand onto his wrist and anchored herself there with chakra. The impact yanked on her arm hard enough it nearly pulled her shoulder from its socket. At least the flicker of discomfort in his expression meant that it likely did the same to him.

So they both fell.

If he stopped himself, he'd stop her. If he kept dropping, they'd both hit the ground.

He spun the both of them, free arm lancing out in an attempt to knock her away. Obviously, she just gripped onto his other wrist.

An inch above where the ring would be, they stopped. At least, he did. It took considerable effort to keep rigid instead of falling down to the ground, which must have been the plan with his sudden halt. The way his eyes widened in surprise when she _didn't_ cemented that.

"...You might as well give up, now." His lips quirked up into a mirthless smile. "It's the only opportunity you're getting to end this fight with a little bit of dignity left."

Well, if he thought her endurance would run out any time soon, he was _very_ wrong. Whatever he was doing to hold himself up, she could probably stay this way longer than he could stay floating. But if they were to suddenly drop...she'd need to be sure he didn't do something underhanded to ensure she touched the ground first.

And it wasn't nearly the way she wanted him beaten.

"Funny."

She pulled on his wrists suddenly, tucking her knees under her stomach. As expected, the action caught him somewhat off guard. However his ability worked, it did allow her to successfully pull him closer, too. Above her. With just a _second_ , he'd undoubtedly be able to slam her down into the ground and end the fight.

She didn't give him that.

Legs slammed into his gut as she twisted the both of them. The force of her double kick served two purposes simultaneously: sending him toward the wall of the competitors, and propelling her back to the arena itself. She skidded along the stone to safety, and strands of blonde hair partly obscured her vision of his form.

" _Amazing_!" The voice of the announcer rang out through the area. Had he been silent all this time, or had she been too distracted to hear him? "By only _millimeters_ , Tien managed to stop himself before impact! What a thrilling twist in this exciting battle!"

_Damn_.

Well, she'd expected to pay that price.

The air stirred through her chopped short hair.

She slapped away the fist that came for her face so narrowly that the disturbed air from the near-impact sliced through the skin on her cheek where it missed.

"Nice _try_." His open palm slammed into the middle of her chest, and quite abruptly she found herself flying through the air in an entirely different manner than moments before.

Stone and wood cracked behind her as her back slammed into an already damaged wall. Not a surprise. His ultimatum would have been a bit silly if he'd followed up her rejection by immediately trying to knock her out of the ring again.

...Probably.

She'd have to be more careful.

"Hey, you can do it!" Goku called from over her shoulder.

For someone who wanted to fight _her_ opponent, he sounded pretty determined.

She stomped her foot into the ring as he shot toward her. One of the stones dislodged and lifted up just in time to trip him up. Of course, he only stumbled a step or two, but she was already in the air again. Her leg connected solidly with his stomach and sent him flying away again.

Obviously, he'd stop himself before he hit anything outside of the ring. Their last clash made that obvious now. So, she didn't wait for that. Another quick step and a jump into the air, and her heel slammed down right in the middle of his stomach.

The ring exploded. Dirt and stone showered outward in every direction, and he vanished into the crater beneath it.

She narrowly managed to lurch backward out of the way of one of those brilliant ki blasts, aimed from somewhere at the bottom of the pit.

"That's the _match_!" The voice of the announcer cut through her thoughts, and she stumbled a step. "And what an _amazing showing_ it was!"

"Wha-?"

Wait, what had she done? Had she broken a rule?

"You _can't_ -!" Tien appeared out of the crater of the ring, face red with irritation, expression twisted into an outraged scowl.

"I'm afraid you made contact with out of bounds beneath the ring. That's a ring out." The man's sunglasses gleamed as he watched the pair of them. Or perhaps just Tien. She couldn't make out exactly where he was looking with as tinted as those lenses were. "Although it's certainly the first time such a feat has ever been achieved at this tournament! Let's give these incredible participants the applause they deserve!"

_What_...?

"No-"

The crowd's enthusiastic cheers drowned out her protests, and the man continued on with his enthusiastic announcements as if neither of them had said anything at all.

Tien glared down at her, having finally climbed out of the pit left in the ring. "See how well that technicality works out for you _next time_."

He brushed off excess dirt and stalked away, hopping from the ring and making his way toward the crowd.

Damn it-

"Get back here! I'm not done with you!"

He hadn't learned _any_ kind of lesson yet!

He actually did stop at her shout. For a moment he simply stood still, and then he looked over his shoulder with a smirk that was far too irritatingly smug for a man who'd just _lost_.

...Rather than say anything, though, he rocketed off into the sky. The crowd cheered just about as much as if he'd been the victor.

She gripped a hand into a fist, just to suppress the urge to damage the ring any more than it already was.

" _Bastard_."


	82. Chapter 82

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maybe it was for her own good too that he escaped.
> 
> Yeah...
> 
> She doubted it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holiday season is just super busy. I haven't had time to write anything.
> 
> How about that Yamcha manga, though? I'd like to think that someone totally read this and was like "Let's make Yamcha cooler! Yeah!"

Unsatisfied felt like much too mild a word.

Yamcha gave a sigh of frustration.

He didn't even get a chance to take a swing at the guy who tried to kill Krillin, let alone kill him, and to make it worse, Tien was almost _unhurt_. It was practically like that fight was all staged just to personally insult him.

That...would certainly add a strange dimension to Ino's mysterious background but...it probably wasn't true. She didn't _seem_ malicious to him, no matter how frustrating she might have been.

...Damn it, maybe he shouldn't have waited after all. It wasn't like Tien surviving to his round was _unlikely_ to begin with, but he should have considered the possibility that the man wouldn't. And he probably shouldn't have been rooting for Ino at that one point in the battle. (Still, even if he wanted to exact revenge for Krillin, it wasn't like he wanted this woman maimed.)

All the regret didn't matter now, though. The perpetrator _just flew away,_ and even squinting at the sky he couldn't spot the guy up there at all to see what direction he went. Maybe he knew better than to stay within reach.

The idea made him feel a little bit better, at least.

There wasn't much time to think about it any longer, though. As much as he was disappointed and frustrated and...utterly unsatisfied by the fact that Tien had slipped through his fingers so easily, now that battle was done. And he needed to face Goku next.

Maybe it wasn't a matter of life or death anymore, but he still had a fair amount of pride, and he wasn't about to easily let his old friend pass him by. He did have a few new tricks up his sleeve this time, even if he had to show off some of them already.

"Hey, Goku..."

The kid glanced up at him, finally taking his gaze off of the spot where Tien had vanished into the sky.

"You ready to lose?"

The consternation that had been on the boy's face faded into excitement then. Whatever similar regret and frustration he must have felt over the lost opportunity, it still took a backseat to the thrill of the fight. Well...he hoped maybe it had something to do with the opponent, too.

If it didn't, he'd make sure to correct that mistake.

After a moment, he realized that Ino still hadn't left the stage. Though the announcer had rattled off quite a bit of commentary already, she'd simply stood in place staring after the man. Her face was mostly obscured, so even when he noticed it, he couldn't quite make out her expression.

The announcer gave a leading cough, and the woman finally gave a small jolt and turned to walk back to the observation area.

For not having a personal horse in the race, she looked pretty frustrated herself. Well, whatever the reason she was so disappointed with a victorious outcome, at least it seemed as if the actual method of victory hadn't been planned after all.

(*)

She shouldn't really be so angry, should she?

Revenge never got anyone anywhere or anything but suffering and destruction. The important part was that she'd protected two of her friends. Neither one of them were at any immediate threat right now, not from Tien or from their own rash actions. She'd even managed to keep her disguise doing it.

Damn it.

She was still _so pissed off_!

However it was that Naruto managed to forgive people who did so much worse to him...she really didn't know. It was another way he was better than her after all. Even with all the pain that Sasuke brought to himself and everyone else in pursuing revenge, it seemed like she was still inclined to behave like him instead of like Naruto.

Maybe that was another reason she kept failing to protect her friends when it mattered most.

She shook her head.

Krillin...was fine. Her shadow clone would have already healed him by now. Until she merged with it again she wouldn't know the _exact_ details, but she knew the injuries she'd witnessed while he was still present were well within her ability to heal.

Both Yamcha and Goku looked about as frustrated as she felt, but...well. It was for their own good. Now they could focus on fighting each other with all of their abilities, instead of thinking about who would fight Tien afterward.

Maybe it was for her own good too that he escaped.

Yeah...

She doubted it.

As the announcer shouted for the battle to begin, a jolt of chakra shot through her.

It wasn't a common feeling, and it took a moment for her to realize just what it _was_.

Memories and images flashed through her mind as the chakra merged back with her consciousness.

Yamcha took a step forward as the semifinal began, Goku crouched slightly, preparing to leap forward.

She ran the other way.

_Krillin!_

(*)

He stared up at her. No matter how hard he did it, though, she didn't actually say anything.

The medics had kicked them out once he showed himself to be perfectly well after all, but he had a feeling it was less about _him_ , and more about how terrifying his benefactor was. Well, she wasn't doing anything particularly frightening right _now_ , and she _had_ just healed him...but he'd had time to get used to her. Those poor medics had no idea the kind of monster they'd allowed into the ambulance.

Aw, _come on_ , was she really not going to say _anything_?

"Okay. But _seriously_." He crossed his arms and frowned up at her. If she had to make him talk, he was going to do it in an annoyed kind of way. Nonverbal communication should have been perfectly viable as well as verbal! "Ki isn't supposed to work like that. I mean... _maybe_ it could be used to restart a heart or something, but..."

"I've told you before, it's something that's more complex than ki."

What kind of a cop out was _that_?

When they got back to the tournament, he'd just ask Goku about it. Goku might not have been the _best_ kind of teacher (his lessons usually seemed to be a little too hands-on to actually pick up if one were a normal person) but at least he had the experience to give some kind of an answer. One that was better than a stupidly vague comment like 'more complex', anyway.

He stopped in place.

Wait a _minute_.

"... _Goku_ can't go and do that now, can he?" Because healing was _way_ more of a monk thing, first off, and Goku was already so durable that being able to heal himself in the middle of a battle would just make him outright unstoppable. And unfair.

She _laughed_.

Not a small chuckle. Full on. _Laughter_.

He liked to think his irritated glare was the primary reason that she regained her composure, and not that it bounced off of her just about as uselessly as he worried one of his punches might (or might as well, if she just went and healed whatever damage he did to her).

"No. _No_ , he can't." She wiped at the corner of her eye with one finger and shook her head. "With his lack of control, if he tried to heal you right now he'd just make you explode."

"E _...explode?_ " That really wasn't as funny an image as she seemed to think it was!

She waved off his statement (as if it wasn't an incredibly concerning prospect!) and shook her head. "Healing jutsu requires extreme concentration. Even though I've taught Goku a little about how to handle chakra, he's nowhere near the level where he can do that."

Hadn't they been training on their own for three years? Had she been intentionally keeping it away from Goku? Frankly, as monstrous as her abilities could be, he was much more inclined to believe that she was intentionally stunting Goku's growth and learning than that she could have something _that_ advanced.

After all, another world or not, she was only about Yamcha's age, wasn't she? That didn't give her that much of a head start, considering how quickly students of the Turtle Hermit learned things.

"Yeah? If it's so complicated, how do you manage it?"

Her smile vanished into a small frown, and her gaze turned to something he couldn't see. It was...a little more sad than unnerving, but maybe it was just her tone of voice that made him feel that way. "That's because I was taught by the best healer to ever live."

He pursed his lips thoughtfully.

Maybe it would be a little off color to make a jab about her luck with teachers. Even though it was hard to believe or accept even now that she actually came from an entirely different world, there was no way she would have been able to fake the reaction she'd given when the Dragon refused to restore them from...whatever happened to them.

"Hey, so...what are the bets looking like for the tournament winner?"

She blinked down at him, thoughts obviously having wandered off. "Er...well...I wasn't really listening to the hermit, but he mentioned something about them. You can just ask him when you get back."

He laced his fingers behind his head. "Hmph. If you don't even know, having you out in the crowd was just useless."

"It's a good thing I wasn't watching to support _you_ , then."

Ugh-

Damn it, even if she helped him out with that weird healing ability, it didn't make her any less unbearable. How had Goku put up with her for three years, anyway?

"Hey. Can you hurry up already? I want to actually _make it there_ in time to see Goku beat that Ino for me."

She rolled her eyes.

"Oh, I hope you aren't hurrying _too quickly._ " That definitely wasn't Sakura's voice.

He frowned and turned to look over his shoulder. "Look...I've had a tough day-" His words trailed off when his gaze fell on the source of the raspy voice.

"Wh...wha...?" What was it? He'd seen dino-men before, though they were pretty rare these days, but...this guy...his reptilian appearance edged over into something demonic. Cruel looking spikes dotted the top of his head, poking out through thick scales, unnatural golden eyes gleamed down at him, and surprisingly large wings stretched out behind an uncomfortably muscular torso and arms.

Long lips twisted into an insincere smirk. "It's just...I thought I heard you talking about a tournament. You wouldn't happen to have been talking about the martial arts one, would you?"

...Well if he was some kind of fighting enthusiast, why was he all the way out here instead of at the tournament? And why did he insist on being _creepy_ about it? "...Yeah? And what if I was?"

Its chuckle sounded uncomfortably like dangerous rattling instead.

"If you know...perhaps you can point me the way? I seem to have lost my directions."

Yeah...this guy _had_ to be making all of his statements creepy on purpose. He didn't like it at all.

"Look...I can tell you where it is, but if you wanted to participate, you're too late. We're already at the quarter-finals. Might even be semi-finals now."

"We?" The man took a step forward. "Could it be...I'm in the presence of participants?"

Before he could say anything, Sakura took a step between them. "This conversation is finished. We have places to be."

" _Oh_ , but I disagree." The man gave another rattling chuckle.

The sound no sooner started, than his image blurred. Krillin just barely tracked the movement from where he stood, green demonic creature launching forward, flapping its wings once for greater speed, hand lifted up to brandish its claws.

One of Sakura's arms came up to block his wrist with hers, and the pair skidded an ominous step.

"If this conversation is over... _so are you_."

One of Sakura's fists lanced out and collided with a scaled stomach. The creature flew at an even greater speed than before, slamming hard through a tree behind it and into a wall even further beyond that.

" _Geez_ , I know he was violent, but you can't just kill a dude like that!"

She gripped her fists at her side. "I didn't."

What-with an impact like _that_? Well, maybe Goku could handle that, but some random mugger on the street? Even if he was super freaky looking and some kind of dino-reptilian guy?

Just as she predicted, though, he climbed out of the rubble of the wall just as the dust began to clear. And he didn't look particularly disturbed.

She grit her teeth, settling a step back, next to him. "...This isn't good."

"On the contrary." The reptile grinned, greenish-yellow blood running through his teeth as the only sign he'd actually suffered any impact from her attack. "This'll be _plenty_ fun."

Well...

He absolutely wasn't going to stand by and be rescued by her a second time today. He'd never live that _down_. He flexed his arms once each, just to make absolutely sure he really was healed, and then settled into a combat stance next to her.

Really, he'd seen her fight before, and he was one of the martial arts tournament finalists. With both of them teaming up to take one cocky guy down, the fight was over long before it even started.


	83. Chapter 83

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She's never felt so slow. She hasn't felt so painfully slow since she was a child watching better ninja move so quickly their movements were barely more than blurs to her untrained eyes. It was such a short distance, and yet it felt like she crawled across it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Life is busy. This is an important chapter, and it took many rewrites and restarts to get it quite right.

_Run_.

She's never felt so slow. She hasn't felt so painfully slow since she was a child watching better ninja move so quickly their movements were barely more than blurs to her untrained eyes. It was such a short distance, and yet it felt like she crawled across it.

_Run_.

She needed to run _faster._

(*)

The ring was...almost hopelessly ruined. A corner of it had cracked and fallen off, some of the tiles had dislodged, there were pock marks littering the usually smooth surface and more than one indented trail that cut almost halfway down to the ground.

Oh yes, and there was a giant _hole into the deep ground_ near one of the edges of the ring. The only reason why they hadn't done anything to fix it is probably because the tournament hadn't budgeted enough time to replace or remove the ring halfway through, and there wasn't any better place for spectators to safely observe the last two fights.

Ah, well. The semi finals and finals were supposed to be the most challenging, right? He'd just have to consider it an obstacle course. One with a few tools lying here and there for him to use, if necessary. Like a hole he'd like to kick Ino into.

That'd be pretty nice, yeah.

But he couldn't worry about a round he wasn't in yet. If he did, the younger boy in front of him would win embarrassingly quickly. And he definitely refused to disappoint himself that much after three years of preparing and training under the great Master Roshi. No way.

Goku settled into that familiar non-stance in front of him, grinning in excitement, none of the weight of the previous battles in his expression at all. As it should be. Both of them needed to focus completely if they wanted to win. Neither one of them was going to hold back this time, after all. And neither one of them were going to get distracted.

"You ready, Goku?"

"Yeah!" The kid gave an excited nod.

"Let's do this!"

(*)

Two against one. Honestly, he didn't know why Sakura had that worried look on her face. Even if she wasn't way more of a terrifying monster on the inside than this guy was on the outside, here he was too! He wasn't just some common kid to be ignored! He, too, was trained by Master Roshi, and even though that Tien managed to catch him by surprise...well, that wasn't going to be the case this time.

"Be careful, Krillin." She frowned at the man in the distance.

"Heh." The lizard approached them slowly, leisurely, even. "Well...if that's what you want. It's your choice how you choose to live right before you die, after all."

_Die?!_

He blinked.

The lizard crossed most of the distance between them in the time that took. He stumbled a step backward, startled more than anything by the sudden movement. Why was it _him_ -?!

Pink flashed across his vision, and Sakura's open palm slammed into the dragon-man's torso, sending him spinning into a nearby building. When she spoke, her voice cracked sharply. " _Krillin_."

_Damn it-focus!_

He shook his head quickly and turned on his heel. As weird as it was to think someone could just randomly approach them on the street and be a threat, clearly it _happened_. No one shrugged off those kinds of hits twice without even looking...pained! And he definitely said 'die'.

Krillin's fists clenched, and this time he took the offensive. He sprinted forward as the hostile figure brushed debris off of his shoulders. Beside him, Sakura seemed intent to run at his pace. It had been three years since they even fought together at all, let alone something like this, wasn't it? Well. Hopefully she was used to fighting alongside Goku enough to follow his lead easily. If not...he'd try not to hit her.

His lips quirked up into an amused smile.

He kicked himself into the air, spinning his leg out to strike the man's neck. Sakura, fortunately, really did respond accordingly. She ducked instead.

A scaled arm connected with his ankle, and a moment later, clawed fingers seized around his leg. Similarly, he grasped one of Sakura's wrists. "Ho? If we've moved onto this, does it mean I get to fight seriously yet?"

A few things happened at once, but what seemed to be most important was the flash of Sakura's free hand. Her fist slammed into the green man's wrist and with what must have been the first cry of pain that Krillin had heard from the creature, he dropped the both of them.

Well.

'Dropped'.

Somehow Krillin still ended up the only one falling on his butt.

"Krillin..." Sakura grabbed his collar and jumped backward, across the street away from their opponent. "You need to run."

Wha-?!

"Excuse me?! Just because you broke free first doesn't mean I wasn't about to escape too!" He growled and glared up at the woman. He...just... _knew it_! She'd been underestimating him this whole time! Just because he wasn't Goku didn't mean he wasn't one of the strongest fighters on the planet! And besides, if that Tien guy wasn't basically a cheater he'd have gotten to fight Goku and prove he was better by now anyway!

"Oh...you're getting better at giving advice." Their enemy approached them slowly again, expression twisted in what was either anger or pain. Probably both, under the circumstances. "In the end it doesn't matter, though. Run all you like. I'll still catch you."

" _Krillin_ -"

"I _don't need your protection_ , damn it!"

He sprinted forward. Their argument was a good distraction to get the man to be unguarded, right? At least it was better than waiting for him to launch another attack, anyway.

He made it about halfway before the man's tongue - long, purple, generally super gross - shot out and encircled him. Multiple times. How did that even fit in a normal mouth?! Up off his feet he went, straining and struggling to break free of a muscle he couldn't even begin to imagine how someone trained up.

The world spun and he flew.

Kind of embarrassing, but who would have expected a trap tongue? Really.

This was the _second time_ today he'd gone flying somewhere. The second.

Rather than a painful impact, though, something cushioned him suddenly, and he skidded to a halt. Rather...Sakura skidded to a halt, arms encircling him and holding him...way uncomfortably close to things he didn't actually want to risk having his face so close to.

Damn it, he refused to count this as a second time getting rescued by Sakura in a day.

"Krillin, look, the way I am now-"

"If you think I'm just going to abandon a friend of mine in a battle like this you've got me all wrong!" Maybe he wasn't the bravest person in the world! Okay, he could admit that! Maybe he wasn't as strong and impressive as she and all of whatever freakish friends she had in that world of hers, too. But he wasn't the kind of person to cut and run so easily. At least...not like this. And he could take care of himself!

Her expression turned to surprise and she turned to look at him briefly.

Sh...did she really think he was _that much_ of a coward? _Why_?!

"Heh. You know...you two are starting to piss me off. If you're just going to bounce around and do nothing else, I think it's time I got on to more important matters."

Did that happen to mean he planned on leav-brilliant red light erupted from the lizard's mouth. And...not a little amount of it, either. A huge ki blast. Just...shot from his open mouth at the both of them.

"Wh- _What the hell_?!"

(*)

She wanted to fly.

Her feet touched the ground occasionally, and damn it that just wasn't good enough. Buildings bled away into whirls of color, the sounds of the city turned into a dim roar of constant noise, and every little detail of the world around her narrowed into the image of the dragon man.

Images from a shadow clone were always choppy, injected so suddenly that putting them together took a bit of understanding and processing time.

Now she remembered it clearly. The strange, dangerous opponent. The ki attacks, the wanton destruction. The glowing hand that sliced right through her shadow form, and the look of shock on Krillin's face the moment before her memories ended.

She skidded and stumbled to a halt as the buildings broke apart into the destruction she remembered.

A bit of tile fell to the asphalt below and shattered into dust. She tensed, ready to defend herself against immediate attack...but none came. Not even a malicious laugh, or a flicker of ki. The man, whoever or whatever he was...seemed to have left the area.

She frowned as she dropped to the street level, glancing left and right through the damaged section of the city. "...Krillin?"

Had the fight moved?

She didn't hear anything in the distance, hadn't seen anything on the way to the tournament. No sound came in response to her call, either. Had he managed to escape, then? Maybe she'd missed him in her rush to get back here to help protect him. Maybe she'd totally underestimated him, too, and the eerie silence of the area came from the fact that he'd single-handedly taken down the man once he had no witnesses.

That wouldn't be a terrible thing.

She stepped lightly across the scattered, broken debris.

In some ways, it reminded her of those years ago, when she'd woken up after an explosion in a castle completely destroyed, when they'd searched desperately for Yamcha against all odds, despite the fact that they all knew it was completely hopeless to think someone else, someone without her unique abilities and strength, could survive such a blast.

The area wasn't nearly destroyed enough to be the same, and this situation...wasn't nearly hopeless enough.

"Krillin?" She tried again. "Krillin!"

Damn it, how was she supposed to know where to look? She didn't have his _phone number!_ What if that man had kidnapped him? What if she was wasting time when she should have been getting Goku and trying to rescue him from some evil group after another stupid wish?

She picked up her pace, sprinting across the area, looking across each rubble pile that seemed large enough.

No, no...of course. Of course she didn't want to find anything. The sooner she finished with this area, the further she went without seeing him here, the better.

She was worried about nothing. After all, no matter how many years might have passed in peace, no matter how much she intended to recover all that she'd lost, make it better than if she'd never left and never failed in the first place...she'd still _failed_ , hadn't she? She'd still failed to protect any one person she'd cared about in her entire life so far.

It's a perfectly reasonable paranoia.

Just a paranoia, really.

"Krillin... _Krillin_!"

She shouted, spinning in place. Damn it, why couldn't she just...why wouldn't he just say or do something to let her know he was _okay_?

She grit her teeth and turned a street corner, following the path of destruction beyond what she'd seen in her memories.

For a few moments, her legs stopped moving. She felt rooted to the ground as surely as if the man had reappeared from the ground right then like a proper shinobi and seized both of her ankles at once. A glimmer of something pale, something too pale, something too familiar looking, stuck out from beneath a collapsed wall a couple of blocks away from where she stood.

No.

No...it was just...it could...have been anything...!

She moved.

She ran.

She might have flown.

Her fingers seized the chunks of crumbling stone and flung them with enough force to shatter the walls of another crumbling building. Beneath it...beneath it was-

His skin wasn't really pale, just a part of it had seemed like it was pale against the darker blue stone above it. In reality, it looked red. Dark, charred black at points and leathery. Not from fire - his clothes were still intact, save for the damage he'd already taken before she'd been hit - but burned some other way.

No...

Nononono- "Krillin...Krillin, come on!" Her hands touched his neck, his cheek, pressed to his chest. It didn't matter that there wasn't a pulse. It could be too weak to feel.

Her shoulders shook, breath reedy as she focused on her chakra, struggled to smother the welling panic, the horror and frustration and guilt. Her chakra system was well trained, and even with her distress, she managed to pour the healing chakra into him.

Into...

She searched.

For anything.

"Damn it... _damn it_!"

Her fist clenched in his shirt, vision blurring. "Damn it! _Damn it_! _"_

She was...

_was so..._

_so..._

A howl of...rage...of fury and frustration, of grief and frustration, echoed through the air. It was probably her voice. No one else was around to make the sound, so it must have been her. She didn't feel herself make it, though. Didn't really remember. She draped herself over the small figure and curled her arms around him in a manner that didn't protect him at all.

Why?

_Why?!_

Why couldn't she protect _even one person?_

_Not even one._


	84. Chapter 84

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The changes to Goku's technique were subtle but he couldn't help but notice them. Was it age, experience, or had they changed because of learning under someone else?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's the second anniversary of The Next Dimension Over as of 8/16/17 (Which is 'today' on the day it was posted). Many things have happened since that time. In respect for that, I made a couple of arts to commemorate it. Progress may be slow and the future uncertain, but there's a few things I've gotten many many inquiries toward. So have some 'teasers'. (http://i.imgur.com/obZ9a7X.png) (http://i.imgur.com/z2mqisB.png) (http://i.imgur.com/n9Ibmhp.png) (http://i.imgur.com/uqVGPI1.png) (http://i.imgur.com/hqnPxPu.png)
> 
> Also a bit of trivia- while I don't plan things out extensively so I don't force things or get disappointed, the original idea for this phase of the story was for Krillin to survive. Sakura or Krillin would have been injured by Tien's battle but remain on-site due to her healing jutsu. The tournament would progress in a method closer to canon, so that when Tambourine appeared Krillin wouldn't be alone and they would manage to escape. Things rippled more than I anticipated, and so the end result was closer in this way to canon. It seems some things are fixed points.

His face hurt. As would be expected after it smacked into solid tile a good dozen times. And the tail whip to the cheek sure didn't help. Probably. But hey, Goku didn't look like sunshine and daisies either. The fruits of their training showed in the bruises forming on each other's skin.

The changes to Goku's technique were subtle but he couldn't help but notice them. Was it age, experience, or had they changed because of learning under someone else? Then again, maybe Goku's technique changed because his own had improved enough to need it. He couldn't decide if that sounded like something he _wanted_ or not. On the surface it seemed kind of like a compliment, but...maybe it wasn't.

Anyway, he couldn't focus on that. No matter how much he'd improved under the Turtle Hermit's teaching, he still had to put his all into fighting Goku...and if he were completely honest...he probably wasn't the stronger fighter. Even if he could blame his missteps on just how trashed the ring was around them. It sure didn't help, after all.

In fact, nearly tripping and falling into the hole that Ino'd created in giving that Tien a ring out escape made it perfectly clear that holding back and playing fair was just going to lose him the tournament sooner rather than later. It sure wasn't like Goku would be holding back, after all. The kid looked way too excited to be even thinking about that kind of thing.

Or...he did until that moment.

For some reason, like he'd just remembered something, Goku's smile evaporated into a confused and shocked expression, and he tripped over one of the jagged edges of the uneven ring. The flicker was sudden, without any kind of preamble. He really couldn't help but wonder what could have invaded Goku's mind during a _fight_.

But he also couldn't help but seize the advantage when it was offered to him. His fingers curled into a fanged fist, and he connected solidly with Goku's jaw. The smaller boy twisted from the impact and flew a few feet, crashing just shy of the edge of the ring.

Which was just...a _shame_ , because it would have been convenient to end the battle right there.

He took a quick step forward, lurching across the distance, and before his old friend could climb back to his feet...he seized the long, furry tail that stuck out into the air to balance the...strange, tailed youth.

"Hey, sorry." He muttered as the boy cried out in pain and flopped back onto the tile limply. As expected, no matter how much Goku trained and got stronger, this weird tail of his was still a weakness. Even if it messed up Goku's balance...it probably would be better in the long run to get rid of it every time it appeared. But...that was pretty barbaric.

He planted his foot in the middle of Goku's back, keeping a hand gripping the tail tightly. "But I still want to win. You gonna start counting or what, guy?!"

(*)

She stumbled and nearly crashed to the ground, the weight of the small body in her arms shifting heavily. The ground - rather, the debris she'd been standing on - had shifted so suddenly it might as well have collapsed under her. Only a quick adjustment and a short jump saved her from collapsing with the boy. A second time.

But she had...

She needed to keep going. It was hard to think, hard to see, but she needed to keep going, because that man had wanted to know about the martial arts tournament. Maybe it hadn't meant anything. Maybe he'd just wanted to kill, and they were the ones unfortunate enough to be in his path. Even if he had, the tournament might be an appealing prospect for one as monstrous as he. It was the only lead she had as to where he'd gone, and the danger he presented was too great to risk the chance that he might go and hurt the people there.

Really...

Really, did it matter? After all, they could just wish at that great dragon, bring him back like nothing ever happened, they could...

_kill_

_that_

_monster._

She'd kill him. She'd...she'd tear the lizard creature apart, piece by piece, little bits and pieces so that he could survive and _suffer_ for as long as she could. She'd make him pay. She'd hurt him. She would. If she could get her hands on him - her real ones, those which wouldn't just disappear the moment he hit her once - she'd unleash all of her rage and all of her pain and all of her guilt.

Damn it.

Why...

Why was it always revenge? Why could she only make people pay for what they did? Why was she always struggling so desperately just to reclaim the things she cared about? Why couldn't she ever protect them, instead? Once, just once. One person. One thing that she cared about. Was all of her effort and all of her struggle really only good for making up for every mistake she made? Every short coming, every time she tried and she failed and watched the things she loved fall apart just out of reach?

At some point she remembered laughing, a broken and bitter sound, because after three years surely she should have trained enough to have made a difference. After failing over and over, watching her world die and her team turn to dust, she should have finally learned how to avoid it because she'd...really tried. She'd promised to fix it, so she must have also found a way to stop it.

He felt cool against her chest as she held him tight, jumping from rooftop to rooftop now, eyes fixed on the stadium in the distance.

_This is..._

_all my fault._

If she hadn't picked back up that silly disguise, if she'd admitted who she was and that she'd wanted to see the boys fight with her. If she'd been the one to fight Tien the first time. If she'd abandoned that pointless battle with some stranger and gone _herself_ with Krillin. If she'd put the welfare of her teammates and her friends over her own frivolous desires...

She wouldn't have to be carrying him now.

At the very least, maybe she'd stop escaping things while everyone around her died instead.

(*)

Yamcha rubbed at the back of his head and grimaced down at his friend. Honestly, he did feel a bit dirty winning that way, but...if it was even possible to win, there was no way he'd pull it off with that damaged ring. Goku's balance and speed would win out for sure. The kid had scrambled over the damaged tile like it wasn't even there until the end bit. And that seemed to be some kind of distraction.

Still...Goku just made him feel worse with the sour grimace he wore on his face.

"I'm pretty sure this proved you're still way stronger than me after all..."

Goku blinked and shook his head, frowning, staring off in the distance. Was he seriously that messed up over just losing?! That wasn't like Goku at all.

"Hey, Goku-"

"I'm worried about Krillin."

He blinked. "Huh? Why? Sakura went with him, right? Considering the kinds of things I've seen and heard about her healing from, he's probably just grabbing a bite to eat or trying to antagonize her into teaching him some secret at this point." If they hadn't just gone right back into the crowd by now, anyway. But he didn't think he'd seen them so...

Goku shook his head and took a step in the direction Krillin had gone. "No, something's wrong, I'm sure of it!"

"You two..." That announcer guy who'd been real reluctant to do his job and actually count stuck his head into the room. "You didn't happen to see contestant Ino Yamanaka, did you?"

He blinked, and glanced around the room.

...They...were _alone_?

Where the hell had she gotten off to? Not...to go searching for her escaped opponent?! No, no. No matter how gung-ho she'd been about fighting the guy, it wasn't like there was anything personal going on there, she wouldn't just skip out on the tournament for it. Not the finals, anyway.

He frowned. "...I haven't seen her since the match."

"Well...this is..." The man gave a huff of annoyance. "The finals should have started a minute ago. If she isn't here in ten minutes, she'll just forfeit."

Forfeit the final match?

_Again_?

"Damn it, she'd better not..."

In the distance, the far door of the participant's room opened with a loud bang. Like...maybe Ino had just been outside taking a smoke break and heard the conversation through the door. Well, at least whatever she'd been doing, she wasn't just skipping out on the finals _again_. Not when he was still going to get that rematch with her. And some revenge for letting Tien escape so easily.

"It-..." His words died in his throat as his gaze fell on the person in the door. It wasn't Ino after all. It was...Sakura.

She stood, chest heaving like she'd been running for some time, dust and dirt streaked along her face and neck. Her knuckles were scraped red and bleeding. In her arms...on her face, her green eyes stared wide around the room, desperate and almost terrified. Her eyes were red, tracks of wetness cut through the fresh dirt caked on the side of her face where she must have fallen or run into something.

In her arms...

Goku raced across the room. Krillin, whose clothes were damaged more than they had been when he'd left, whose arms and face looked red and black and burned somehow, lay sprawled in her arms. He certainly didn't move. Even if his eyes were closed, he...

" _Krillin_!" Goku shouted in horror, reaching out for the boy in her arms. The pink haired woman fell to her knees, head falling forward in defeat. His old friend clutched the small, lifeless teammate by the collar, shaking violently. "Krillin...Krillin, _no_! _No_!"

Dead...

He really was...

Yamcha stumbled a few steps himself, not really feeling the weight of his legs, neither...very sure of why he was moving at all, or to where. "How...I don't...?" If somehow she'd just failed to save Krillin, then...that wouldn't account for all the new damage. It might have been a car accident of some sort, but surely students of the Turtle Hermit could survive something _that_ minor?!

Sakura shook her head, still not looking up, teeth grit. "I...there was...someone. One of the lizard types, I don't know where he came from, and-"

A lizard man? Some strange... _person_ did this?! If they were surprised, at least it explained somewhat how it could have ended up like this so quickly, but...just what kind of person out there could even manage to do it? Neither Krillin or Sakura were _weak_.

"I...I'll find him!" Goku growled, arms shaking. Actually...his whole body trembled. "I won't let _anyone_ get away with doing this to one of my friends! They'll...they'll _pay_! I'll make them pay!"

"Now... _that_ sounds entertaining."

Yamcha turned on his heel immediately, spinning to face the unfamiliar voice. A man who indeed was one of the lizards - but with wings, so a bit more draconian than lizard - stood in one of the doorways that led off to other facilities. The kitchens, if he remembered correctly. The man didn't look like much...but the intent to kill and the smell of death radiated off of him almost palpable.

Just who the hell... _what_ the hell was he?

Pink and red streaked across his vision. Sakura and Goku both moved at a speed he hadn't witnessed from either of them before. Her fist slammed into the ground, and Goku flew past where the man had been a moment ago, crashing into the hallway instead.

Fast.

Whoever this guy was...he was definitely quick enough to get a sneak attack off. Which meant he really must have been the killer.

Yamcha grit his teeth. Krillin's body propped against the wall where Goku and Sakura had knelt moments before.

"Before I kill you two...you wouldn't happen to have seen any dragonballs around have you?" The man gave a laugh that sounded a bit like the rattling tail of a snake. His arms crossed, watching the two who attacked him. And...of course he wanted dragonballs. After all, they were only legendary, almost mythical orbs of magical powers that he'd never heard of five years ago, why _wouldn't_ there be yet another group of powerful monsters after them already?

"You don't get to talk!" Goku shouted, reappearing in the room and pointing at the lizard man. " _You killed my friend_!"

"What...that weakling over there?" Another laugh, and the man leaped from the ground, bouncing off of the ceiling this time to avoid another dual attack from the two enraged fighters. "I'd almost feel bad taking credit. He practically killed _himself_."

Yeah.

No way in hell he'd just stand there and let those two fight alone.

He curled his fingers into a claw - a technique he'd developed training with Krillin that he hadn't gotten to show off yet. The man jumped once again, and he struck.

Wolf Klaw. He liked the sound of that name. Krillin had suggested something like that.

Maybe that's what he'd call it.

His fingers cut through the air, and that air sliced through the man as the lizard passed in front of him, cutting those wings to ribbons. On a more satisfying note, it finally got the creature's attention on _him._ Even if he hadn't had the chance to react properly...hadn't made any of the bold declarations Goku had, or carried Krillin through the city like Sakura...it didn't make him any less _murderously furious_.

"I wouldn't worry too much about that dragonball, actually. Dead men don't get to make wishes."


	85. Chapter 85

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It really was a stupid thing to insult Krillin. But it wasn't his worst mistake of the day.

She couldn't really expect to hit the lizard creature. How could she even try for accuracy when all she saw was blood and fire and _red_? Seeing him saunter in so arrogantly, behaving so dismissive and flippant, the rage and the guilt were so great inside her that she was almost afraid she'd explode.

Part of the wall did, instead. And two more walls in the distance.

Maybe she should hold back more. After all, if she decimated the man in one hit, how could she make him _suffer_? She couldn't tear him into bloody pieces and punish him as long as possible if there was nothing left of him to break.

Yamcha jumped into the creature's path with a speed that was a definite improvement over what she'd seen in their match a year ago. Air sheered into the curtains behind him from his sudden burst of speed, and perhaps due to the lizard's distraction slipping away from _her_ , Yamcha landed a punch right in the creature's face, forcing the lizard to stagger backward a step or two.

"You know..." The man rasped, utterly unconcerned. "I'm just a little impressed! As pathetic a fight as that other one put up, I thought you'd _all_ be as boring."

"DON'T YOU _DARE_ INSULT KRILLIN!" Goku gave an enraged scream of his own, flying through the air, leg outstretched.

For just a moment, he lifted his hand, ready to grab the younger boy's leg out of the air and counter attack.

It really was a _stupid thing_ to insult Krillin. But it wasn't his worst mistake of the day. A burst of chakra flooded through her limb as her own hand shot out, seizing his wrist and _crushing it into nothing_. Goku contacted with the man's stomach a moment later, sending him flying into another wall, and tearing the wrist and hand off of him completely.

_First piece down_.

The creature howled and hissed in pain as it held it's arm in its only remaining hand. "Wh-what is...?! How could you-?!"

"So you just busted in here and underestimated the strongest fighters in the world after you killed one of our friends, huh?" Yamcha growled, advancing on the man. Goku threw a flurry of punches at the lizard, who managed to deflect and dodge most of them for the moment, dancing out of the way, movement hampered considerably in the small space and without his wings.

"Well you know what? I was _already_ pretty pissed off today, and that was _before you killed my friend_."

The lizard turned and jumped through the air to avoid a double attack from Yamcha and Goku. As he went, one of those bright lights zapped out from his eyes. Just slightly, it grazed one of Goku's arms, burning a stripe of his skin and earning a pained cry from him. Not nearly as pained as it was enraged, however.

Another one of Yamcha's lightning fast strikes flew through the air, causing the creature to try to twist to avoid it again, in mid-air. It succeeded...but at the cost of landing badly on the ground. He stumbled on the uneven ground, just a step, and she seized his arm and chin. In an instant, she snapped his arm, shattering his shoulder so completely that it hung uselessly by skin alone. It would have been easy to kill him. Right then and there. Her teeth grit, and she growled in a voice deeper than she'd needed to use in...a _long time_. "You're just full of _bad decisions_ today."

Her fingers dug into his neck. The urge to rip his throat out right then and there was so strong an urge to do it that her whole body trembled. Damn it. She wanted to kill him. She wanted to tear him to pieces. She wanted him to suffer. He wasn't _suffering_ enough, and everything burned and _ached_.

It _hurt_. Everything inside her and every part of her _hurt_ , like she'd been the one to take whatever attack had burned Krillin. Was this what it felt like to be devoured by hatred and grief? This last straw, losing someone here, after she'd lost everyone already? Failing to protect someone because of her own mistakes again, was this the darkness that Naruto had somehow overcome? Because...she...she wasn't completely sure if she _could_.

Light flashed, and electricity lanced all over her arms, spreading quickly through her body.

Her scream of pain was automatic, not even something she had any control of, triggered by the electricity itself - some sort of sudden lightning jutsu she hadn't even seen him start from where she stood behind him. For a few moments, her legs ceased to work.

" _Sakura_!"

Quite a few things happened at once. Or at least they seemed to. Her vision was a bit blurred. Her perception of time was likewise fuzzy as she fell. Already, her chakra was gathering in her body, seeking out the damage to fix it. It wasn't really a danger. Hands and arms that were slightly leathered and charred from the direct contact already began to heal even as she fell.

The lizard man moved to escape - away from all of them to the doorway. Maybe he knew the damage he'd taken was too much to handle them and needed a distraction to flee. Goku and Yamcha both shouted - rage, horror, surprise, she didn't know, because it was a bit too distorted to tell. They moved at speeds that they should be proud of.

Her head whipped backward enough to strain her neck slightly, but somehow didn't connect with the floor.

Arms.

Ah. She'd been caught.

Goku flashed by her vision, contacting with the retreating man, and the hands of the other...Yamcha, then, cupped her cheek, expression worried and concerned to an extent that it might have been panic. Like the man didn't know she could heal far worse than this easily. Idiot. He should have been dealing with that man, not her.

Quite a few powerful thuds rang out just outside of her vision, restricted as it was by his hand holding her face in place. Once her chakra network reoriented itself she'd be able to knock his hand away and look properly, but for a moment it was just giving him what she hoped was a frustrated and angry expression.

Goku called out indistinctly, no longer distorted, but drowned out by the ringing in her ears. Light flashed, but-damn it, she couldn't see. Yamcha looked up briefly and then back at her, mouthing words of concern he really, really didn't need to do.

"-Okay? Damn it, Sakura, are you alright?! If you're hurt, you're the only one who knows how to do your healing tricks!"

She groaned, finally regaining tingling control of her limbs - which quickly smoothed away into nothing. Her hands pressed against his chest and she stumbled to her feet as she shooed him away. The concern for her was wasted, really. Something like that might hurt, but it didn't do any real damage. If she'd been paying better attention to him instead of her own anger and pain, she wouldn't have even been distracted and surprised by it.

Her gaze turned to around the room, seeking the enemy.

...The charred remains outside the building through the broken door was probably him.

Her hand gripped into a fist for a moment. She...really shouldn't be angry or disappointed. The man was dead. He'd been punished. And she was there to make sure no one else was hurt after she'd failed Krillin. If Goku killed him...it didn't really matter if he did it, Yamcha, or her. She just...

She shook her head quickly, as Goku made his way over to where Krillin's body was left. Fortunately, the battle had gone away from that spot almost immediately. The body was still intact. If that...mattered. It did. It had to.

She...

"Damn it..." Yamcha growled and shook his head. He'd stood at some point, hands clenched at his sides as well, and his gaze turned between the remains of the attacker and Krillin. " _Damn it_. We don't even know _why_. He just...waltzed in here, _killed someone_ , and we have no idea who he even was!"

All the anger and the grief and the helplessness...it just left her feeling empty. And weak. The one who'd been there to cheer her up, give her hope when she'd lost her world...

Now he was the one she'd failed.

She shook her head slowly.

"Wha...what the hell _was that thing?!_ "She blinked, glancing at a matching expression of confusion from Yamcha...and turned her head toward the somewhat familiar in the corner of the room, safely away from danger or bodies, was the announcer for the tournament.

...Just when did _he_ get there?

(*)

In the chaos of the sudden attack...or, rather, in the chaos of one of the participants ending up mysteriously killed and the others attacked, no one could figure out what happened to Ino Yamanaka. It was possible that she'd run away from that guy, and it was possible she'd been killed somehow by him when she'd left to do something else.

She might have done her disappearing act and forfeited again, but he didn't really care. Getting crowned 'champion' by default was about as hollow a victory as he could appreciate anyway, when his friend was dead for no discernible reason by some freakish monster that came from nowhere.

Bulma was the first one to offer any kind of a reasonable comment, but maybe that's because...she was that kind of person. Just because she was suffering didn't make her any less of a genius. Or maybe...traveling with and living with Krillin less gave her a little more distance, and made it a little less...personal.

Maybe he was being uncharitable and angry because he'd wanted to avenge Krillin _twice_ , and in the end couldn't even manage to protect his friend, instead.

"I'll put him in a special coffin. It will preserve him until you can get the dragonballs." Bulma gave a slow, shaky nod. "It...it'll be alright. Whatever that was...well, you guys killed him, right? So we can just gather the dragonballs and fix this all like it never happened."

Sakura frowned, and Goku shook his head. He agreed. Even when they brought him back - and they _would_ , dammit - it wouldn't be like nothing happened. Guilt didn't just disappear that easily. He knew that one pretty damn well.

Master Roshi shook his head and slowly made his way over to the corpse of the culprit. "It...just...doesn't make much-"

The old man's voice cut off suddenly, and Yamcha quickly turned his own head to see what it was. A part of him was a little afraid yet another threat had appeared - or Tien might have returned to cause more damage. The latter was...more of a hope than a fear.

Neither was so.

Instead, his old teacher bent over the burned remains and sifted through the pockets in the torn and charred pants. Which was...actually kind of a good idea. If he'd been thinking straight, he'd have gone searching for identification and a reason for the attack, too.

"This..." The old man straightened. He held some kind of paper, charred on the edges and burned slightly inward. A symbol was clearly visible on it still, though. Some...kind of circle? With the word 'devil' in it? Was it some kind of cult, maybe?

"This can't be...possible." The way his master's voice trembled was...

It couldn't have been just a cult.

"Master...what is it?" He made his way closer to the Turtle Hermit, so that he could get a better look at it. Maybe there were more details to see to explain the uncharacteristic reaction. "What have you found?"

"This...this is...the most dangerous thing the world has ever known."


	86. Chapter 86

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maybe she cursed the worlds around her. Something must hate her, must feel she needed to be punished for some failure of her own, and so it destroyed her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is now a tumblr blog/page for fanart/fic and side stories that don't work for The Dimension After Next. It can be found at thenextdimensionover.tumblr.com

_"The most dangerous thing the world has ever known."_

She wondered idly if it was something about her. Throughout her life, it seemed like danger after danger appeared, each one worse than the last. It always escalated, even when it seemed like there was nowhere for it to escalate to. In the end, it'd gone on until they failed. Maybe it was happening here, too - that this enemy was from the past of this world wasn't important, because if he was here now, then he'd returned once she'd arrived.

If it was happening here, too, maybe it was her. Maybe she cursed the worlds around her. Something must hate her, must feel she needed to be punished for some failure of her own, and so it destroyed her. Or those around her, when people appeared to protect her. When she failed to protect them. When she failed them. Again.

It was a ridiculous thought, but it occurred all the same.

The breeze carried the smell of salt and some sort of distant smoke which had become familiar to her while she lived on the island and watched the boys train. At the time, she'd barely cared enough to watch even when she wasn't busy trying to extract the secrets of ki - and a way home - from the old man. None of it really mattered at all. All that time, she'd been...callous and cold, single-minded in her determination to make it back home to help people that she'd already failed.

The horizon line was broken up and different from what she remembered. Right on the hill overlooking where Kame House had been, another much grander house stood. It was already early evening, the sun starting to sink to the horizon, but the house stood still and dark. Silent. Empty.

She'd never really bothered to come over and visit him after he'd bought the house. Even after she'd considered him a friend. After he'd helped her in...in perhaps her darkest time, she'd not even bothered to visit him in his expensive house. It seemed like a nice house. Not the kind of house she'd expect from someone dedicated enough at training to make it to the World Martial Arts Tournament.

In the end...she was only here because he wasn't. He wasn't anywhere, but he especially wasn't...here.

"It looks nicer on the outside."

Yamcha stood a short distance from her. She wasn't sure when exactly he'd walked up beside her, but...well, it must have been just then. There's no reason for two people to stand staring at an empty house for so long, after all.

He ducked his head a bit, hands sliding into the pockets of his baggy orange pants - they weren't the same hue at all, but it reminded her a bit of Naruto's jumpsuit right then. "He packed it so full of useless crap looking for things to spend it on, it's like a disaster scene in there." His laughter barely even started before it trailed off into silence. "...I know we've got...the dragonballs. I keep telling myself that. Aloud, generally. But...it doesn't make it feel any _different_."

He was right. They should have...she should have been focused on finding a solution to Muten Roshi's dire prediction, worrying about bringing Krillin back with the dragonballs later, because it's not _really_ like he was dead and gone if they could preserve his body and just wish it all away later, right? But...she just couldn't get past the images in her mind, replaying the battle in her head differently every time she closed her eyes, looking for a way she _could_ have behaved so that she wouldn't have found him like that to begin with. She couldn't help but...hurt and dwell on regret and all the ways she'd failed him. Even from the start. Even until the end.

Inside the house behind them, Bulma crafted extra dragon radars, so they could collect the dragonballs much more quickly than last time.

"...So..." Yamcha spoke once more, gazing up into the sky. "I guess you wouldn't know anything about the history of this world but...even I hadn't heard of this guy before and I live here."

_"The most dangerous monster the world has ever known."_

_The old man looked pale. Pale enough she worried a little about his health despite the fact that it was a pretty reasonable response to the sudden loss of a student._

_"This mark...is the mark of the Demon King Piccolo."_

She crossed her arms, glancing over at Yamcha. Whatever he'd been planning to say, he'd trailed off into silence when she'd failed to give him a proper response. She'd met a demon king before. She wondered whether the two were related somehow or if they were kings of different nations? She couldn't exactly go and ask, though, and in the end it didn't matter.

The silence stretched on between them, but he continued to stand there, watching the empty house on the hill. She'd like to think that they were in the same position. Both frustrated, both grieving, both feeling guilty and helpless that they were unable to save a friend when he needed them. Both unable to be there in the end until it was too late.

That was being too kind though, wasn't it? He didn't hold any fault for the situation.

She, on the other hand...

He turned to say something, and she spoke over him. "It's me. I'm-I was Ino."

The man blinked and stared at her, mouth still open as if he'd forgotten that he'd been about to speak. She couldn't really read his expression. Shock? Confusion? Satisfaction? Anger, perhaps. The last one was the most appropriate under the circumstances.

She crossed her arms, frowning, refusing to look at him closely enough to determine what his response really was. "Last time, the old man asked me to do it. The both of them were advancing so quickly they'd gotten cocky. I didn't really care that time, but..." Her gaze fell. From him. From the shadow of her failures that loomed over her like a silent taunt. The very person who'd given her some kind of hope when she'd lost everything...she'd so carelessly failed.

"But...that can't be, you were..."

A few quick gestures, all rote by now, and a duplicate of her appeared standing next to her. A moment later, she dispelled it into a puff of smoke, returning the allocated chakra to herself. It was quicker than explaining how the ability worked, and that wasn't important anyway. "I was...Goku just wanted to fight Ino so badly. And Krillin. I thought I might tell you all afterward anyway, but then...that man..." No. It didn't matter. Shifting the blame to others didn't help things, and she didn't believe it even if she said it. "If I hadn't been there...the match ups would have been different. Even if someone were hurt, then...I wouldn't have been distracted fighting two battles at once. If it had been the real me and not a copy-"

His hand gripped her shoulder.

"What the _hell_ was that fight?"

She blinked, and squinted over at him. His expression was intense, irritated, not quite on the level that she'd expect if he were blaming her for losing a battle he hadn't seen and getting a friend killed in the process. "What-"

"I've seen you fight before, so why the hell did you go and _let_ him escape?! Ino was one thing, but you can't tell me _you_ didn't want to kick his ass."

The..ah-the...Tienshinhan, not...the other. She shook her head after a moment, turning her frown out to the horizon. To wherever that man had escaped. "He was stronger than he looked. And it's not like I didn't try. Neither one of us knew that'd count as a ring out. In case you didn't notice, he'd _just_ tried to do the same thing to me. So...it's a different kind of fight-"

"So you just collect all the guilt you don't deserve so you don't have room for the stuff you should be guilty about, huh?" Yamcha scoffed and took a step back, planting his hands on his hips. "Since I met Goku and Bulma I'm reminded... _daily_ that I'm not the smartest guy around. But even I can tell it's stupid to think you're at fault for some freak return of a nightmare creature none of us had even heard of. You wanna blame yourself for failing to give that guy a good beat-down or at least letting me deliver it? Great, I've been doing that all day. But Krillin...? I can't let you have that credit."

Couldn't let her 'have' it...? There wasn't any way he could actually be blaming himself, could there? That didn't make any sense at all.

"You can't think that _you're_ at fault."

He shook his head immediately, and turned his head back toward the empty house. "No. It's just that the guy who's really responsible...this Demon King? I'm gonna _kill him_. So. Sorry. You can't have that blame. It's not negotiable."

"That's a nice thought..." A voice came from behind both of them. She didn't need to turn her head to know it was the old man who'd first asked her to take on the guise of 'Ino'. "But it's just going to get you both killed. Idiots! Didn't you hear anything I said?!"

The old man huffed in irritation, walking up to where they both stood. He looked frail, like if he didn't have that cane both hands clung to he wouldn't even have the strength to stand up properly. But that was a flat-out lie. The turtle shell on his back alone would have crushed most of the fighting men in the tournament, and she knew well enough that he was agile and durable atop that. How much she'd never been able to confirm, but certainly not frail as he appeared.

"It's like I told you. This monster...even the children he creates are stronger than anyone else you've ever faced. He can create hundreds, no, thousands of these monsters without any effort and destroy the world. If you think you can face the demon king yourself, you're both fools. There's only one way to defeat him, and there has only ever been one way."

The Mafuba. He'd mentioned it earlier when he'd explained the demon king after the tournament. It seemed simple enough, a powerful sealing jutsu like what was used on tailed beasts to put them into containers. Usually they'd go into people...but on rare occasions they had been put into jars and other containers in her own world. One that might seal away something similarly in this world didn't seem far-fetched. But... "Your master didn't survive that technique."

The man's glasses gleamed, lips pressed into a grim line. "...Do you think one life is more important than the world?" After a moment, the serious expression passed into something dismissive, and he waved his hand. "It doesn't matter anyway! When my master used that technique, he'd been fighting off Piccolo's monsters and even the demon king himself all day. His ki was so depleted that using such a technique was certain death. Using it if you have sufficient energy left won't be any worse than any other heavily taxing technique."

Yamcha squinted at the old man. "So then you'll teach it to all of us, right?"

"Impossible." The old man shook his head. "The technique takes seventy years to master, and I would need to show it to you for you to even begin to learn. If this truly is the Demon King, escaped somehow despite the seal and despite my throwing it into the ocean...we must focus on collecting the dragonballs immediately."

"Why?" He'd been sternly insisting it, but he'd yet to explain himself. "Do you think you can wish him away?"

The old man huffed. "Away...? I can't believe even that would work. However...it would save us an incredible amount of effort and danger to seal him back into the pot with the dragon instead."

Most likely, if the man had broken out, restoring a seal _would_ be easier than killing someone. That much was true, but...at the same time...she couldn't help the twinge of...dissatisfaction. Even if they could bring Krillin back just as he was before the attack, it didn't sound nearly as satisfying to just lock the culprit away cleanly instead of beating him into unconsciousness or death with her own hands.

"...Goku's not gonna like that plan."

"Which of us is the master, eh?" The old man turned his back to them then, starting back down the hill. "Bulma is finished with the dragon radars. There's no more time for boasting."

Yamcha was the first to speak between them once the old man got far enough ahead to be out of reasonable earshot. "So...what happens if this demon king _also_ happens to know about that legend...and decides to go grab one of them for himself just in case someone else gets that idea?"

Was that likely? The Red Ribbon Army had known, as had those strange people in that flying castle. And of course so did they. It...was possible some kind of scourge of the earth might also know or have heard about it at some point. If he did, then...that kind of a plan wasn't out of the question at all, assuming he could find one.

And if he did...

Goku would probably like the plan left to them then.


End file.
